Elijah Armendariz is packing his suitcase for a trip to Walt Disney World.
The five-year-old kindergarten student at Dent Elementary – who is also a cancer survivor – will be traveling with his family to Florida courtesy of the Make A Wish Foundation, which granted his wish to visit the iconic theme park.
“Elijah was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor (Kidney Cancer) on May 9, 2021, it was a couple months before his third birthday,” explained his mom, Dellia. “He started having symptoms of what we thought was appendicitis. Back-to-back ER trips led to an ultrasound on his stomach, in the ultrasound the doctors found a tumor on his left kidney. Elijah was immediately transferred to Valley Childrens in Madera.”
There, a CT confirmed that the youngster had a 7cm tumor attached to his left kidney; he would need immediate surgery and have to undergo chemotherapy.
Surgery to remove the tumor was done May 13, 2021 and Elijah also had his left kidney removed, as well as having a medi-port implanted in his chest.
“The medi-port is a device connected to the large blood vessel leading to his heart and that’s how he received his chemotherapy,” Dellia added.
Dad Michael Armendariz said doctors gave the family the option of having just the tumor and a portion of the kidney removed or having the entire kidney removed.
“As his father, I just wanted the right things to be done so we decided to remove the whole left kidney,” Michael said. “After the surgery, Elijah had to undergo chemotherapy … Elijah went 20 rounds of chemotherapy, he had two blood transfusions and he has had over five CT scans.”
Elijah completed the 20 chemo treatments by November 2021 and had his port removed in February 2022.
“Elijah is now five years old; he is in Kindergarten at Dent … He rocks his long hair that he has not cut, since his hair loss during chemo; he loves playing with his friends and eating pizza. He is currently 23 months in remission and by the grace of God he is doing amazing,” Dellia said.
His wish, to go to Walt Disney World, was granted at a ‘reveal party’ on Friday morning, Nov. 3 at Dent Elementary School, in front of all students and staff. A special guest was Mickey Mouse, who stole the show and emerged out of a school building on to the blacktop where the assembly was being held to chants of his name. Elijah was then called front and center, to hear that his wish was granted, while standing alongside Mickey Mouse. Principal Anthony Varni said they decided to do a full school assembly for the event, since the family wanted to have the reveal done at the school.
“Super special and we had not done a whole school assembly since we brought on KAT Country (radio station) for the Pledge of Allegiance six or seven years ago,” said Varni. “Even when we do regular assemblies, we do it in three shifts to accommodate all 750 kids; the kids did a great job and we wanted to make sure that we were able to incorporate what we always do because we always do Friday announcements but we wanted to make sure Elijah had his moment to be the star, too.”
Coming off the recent Red Ribbon Week with dress up days, Varni said they sent a special note home indicating Friday, Nov. 3 would be Disney Day but didn’t give a specific reason. Fifth grade students also made Disney-themed posters and were able to display them at the assembly.
Several Escalon Unified School District board members, Escalon City Council and Public Works personnel were on hand, and a caravan of police vehicles, fire trucks and the ambulance arrived, lights and sirens, pulling up to the side of the blacktop to the delight of students.
“It all came together perfectly,” added Varni. “It was a very special Friday announcement that I don’t think anybody’s going to forget.”
The entire family will be attending the Make A Wish trip; dad Michael, mom Dellia, Elijah and his sisters, 14-year-old Adrianah, a freshman at Escalon High; eight-year-old Isabellah, a third grader at Dent; and new baby sister Lorinah, now seven months old.
Mom Dellia said the Make A Wish process was begun through the hospital.
“The hospital will say, he qualifies for a wish, do you want to do it, yes or no, if it’s yes, you start the paperwork and then it gets sent out to Make A Wish, the doctor signs it off and you just kind of go from there,” explained Dellia. “His wish, he wanted to go to Disney, he wanted to see Toy Story, he loves Toy Story and that’s what he got.”
The family is due to leave for their Make A Wish trip later this month.
