San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
3-YEAR-OLD SAN YSIDRO CANCER PATIENT SURPRISED WITH PLAYSET
Local donation kicks off the foundation’s cross-country tour
What began as just a typical day for 3-year-old Diego Ortiz turned into one filled with joy when he came home from chemotherapy treatment to find a new playset waiting for him in his San Ysidro backyard.
The Roc Solid Foundation, a nonprofit that has surprised thousands of kids fighting cancer with their own backyard playsets, traveled to San Diego from Virginia to kick off its “Play Defeats Cancer Tour.”
The Ortiz family is the first stop on the tour, which will take Roc Solid across the country to build 30 playsets in 30 days.
When children are diagnosed with cancer, one of the first things taken away is the opportunity to play in public spaces and with friends because they are often immunocompromised. The backyard playsets give these kids a safe, germ-free place to play.
“This is their new sanctuary,” said Jeff Floyd, a build leader with Roc Solid. “We want to bring some normalcy back to their life and give them a place where they can hang out and feel safe and feel secure.”
In July of last year, just about a month before Diego’s third birthday, he was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, the most common type of cancerous brain tumor in children.
“Everything pretty much went upside down,” said his father, Diego Ortiz.
Diego is on his second round of chemo treatment. His dad says his young age is an advantage.
“Us as adults, I mean, we stress so much over everything,” he said. “But I think him not knowing exactly what is going on just keeps his spirits high, his energy high.”
About two dozen volunteers from near and far came together Thursday morning to build the playset while Diego
was at chemo treatment.
“They’re all strangers,” said the father. “It’s amazing.”
Now, he, too, wants to help build more playsets for other kids.
“That’s the definition of community,” Floyd said.
Volunteers, invited to sign the playset, left messages like “swing high” and “play hard.” Floyd said that will encourage not only Diego, but the entire Ortiz family, to stay positive.
“Look,” Diego’s mother Karina Aguilar could be heard excitedly telling him as she carried him into the backyard to unveil the surprise. Though bashful, Diego’s excitement was evident as he ran to the playset.
“He loved going to the park ... so it’s definitely extra special,” Diego’s dad said.
Diego’s playset was Floyd’s 180th build. He says each is just as special.
“Every single one of these kids leaves their thumbprint on my heart,” he said. “No matter how many builds I do . ... It brings joy to them, but it shows that we have great people in the world doing amazing things.”
Eric Newman, the founder and “chief play officer” of Roc Solid, is a pediatric cancer survivor himself and says he understands the challenges that come with it.
“I understand first-hand missing out on play, and I also witnessed play being stripped from two cousins that passed away of cancer,” he said. “Something as simple as a place that, if we can, allow these families, allow these kids, to escape the reality of cancer by putting in a playset in their backyard, even for 10 seconds, then we’ve done our job.”
For more information on the Roc Solid Foundation, visit rocsolidfoundation.org.
emily.alvarenga @sduniontribune.com