It’s a dirty job, but this 6-year-old is glad to do it
CALIFORNIA | SACRAMENTO — Ethan Dean has always dreamed of being a garbage man. He never tires of playing with toy garbage trucks and loves to watch the real ones drive past his house.
On Tuesday, the 6-year-old with cystic fibrosis got his wish, riding shotgun in a booster seat through Sacramento as an honest-to-goodness garbage truck driver with a set of wheels labeled “Ethan’s Garbage Truck.”
He donned a green cape that read “Hero Ethan” and a big smile as the truck stopped to pick up trash and recyclables. It wasn’t a chore for Ethan, who said his favorite part of the day put on by the Make-A-Wish Foundation was “cleaning up garbage.” Hundreds of people gathered to cheer him on.
Ethan was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis as an infant and began treatment at eight weeks old. The genetic disorder is characterized by a buildup of thick mucus and frequent lung infections, and the median life expectancy is about 40 years old.
When Make-A-Wish Foundation agreed to grant his wish in February, there was little doubt what he wanted it to be.
“We pretty much knew it was going to be about garbage trucks,” said Ethan’s dad, Ken Dean, laughing.
Ethan’s big day comes three years after Make-A-Wish transformed San Francisco into Gotham for a 5-year-old boy who had battled leukemia for years and dreamed of being Batkid. Miles Scott traveled from one crime scene to another, rescuing a damsel in distress and thwarting the plans of The Riddler and The Penguin, as crowds of people cheered him on.
Ethan’s dream is being a less fantastic, more everyday superhero. When he visited Make-A-Wish and was asked about some of his dreams, almost all of his answers were garbage-truck related, said Jennifer Stolo, CEO of the local chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.