A boy, Landen, and his father, Vince, are trying to raise money for sick kids. Here’s how it started:
To understand why 10-year-old Landen Martinez has such a big, generous heart, you have to go back about eight years to when his father Vince decided to grant a wish on his own and charter a helicopter flight for young man named Ryan who had terminal cancer.
Landen was only a toddler, but he was watching.
Years later, Landen wanted to go hiking with his dad. Vince saw that the weather would be fine. It wasn’t.
He packed plenty of food and water – but no amount of preparation would stop a sudden and violent monsoon storm.
They were alone and terrified.
“I looked him in the eye and I said, ‘hold on to my hand, we’re not going to stop, we’re too far to go back.’ We kept going, we made it to the top – I thought, ‘wow, he never quit!’” said Martinez.
Only six years old at the time, Landen apparently fell in love with hiking after that trip. Now-a-days, he’s hiking for a purpose.
Then a few months ago, Vince had a proposal for his son.
“I said, ‘’let’s hike Mount Fuji, that’s a higher peak. And the first words out of his mouth was, ‘how can I help other kids through this? How can I help other kids with this hike?’” said Martinez.
It was Landen’s first instinct.
“I remembered when I was little; I remembered about the kid my dad took on a helicopter…and then I thought, ‘if I hike Mount Fuji, I could raise money for kids like that,’” said Landen.
“I almost started crying, to be honest with you. Very proud of him, big heart,” said Martinez.
Make-A-Wish Foundation is where the money’s heading. They already have $5,000 raised and plan to raise plenty more.
