There's no grand-scale once-in-a-lifetime world-traveling exotic wish on a local 10-year-old's list.
Cyris Van Dijk just wants to hang around Prince George and look for agates so he can watch the sun shine through them.
Superhero fan Cyris got his wish Friday when he was surprised with a travel trailer in front of family, friends, people dressed as superheroes and sponsors that gifted him many items including a super hero onesie and towel, an X Box 360 and games to go with it, along with Hulk comic books and many other items.
To make Cyris's wish happen, mom Tanya made arrangements with the Children's Wish Foundation for the family to get the trailer so they could go find the perfect spots close to Prince George (and the hospital) for her homebody son to enjoy some time to explore the great outdoors to his damaged heart's content.
Cyris was born with an abnormal heart and arteries, with his aortic artery being thinned and stretched and on the verge of a rupture.
Cyris is not a candidate for a heart transplant at this time, Tanya said.
"So in the future Cyris will get a transplant if he can hang in there until then," said Tanya.
Cyris also has bilateral club foot that affects both his feet.
Tanya applied to the Children's Wish Foundation on Cyris's behalf and was approved to have a wish granted in April 2015. The Children's Wish Foundation is a Canadian charity that helps Canadian children and families by granting the wish of a child diagnosed with a life-threatening illness.
When Tanya told Cyris he could have a wish and handed him his wand to make the wish, his ever bright and cheery nature and simple needs and wants came to the forefront as it does so often in Cyris's day-to-day life.
"'Oh, mom! I want an agate!'" Tanya recalled fondly. "And I'm like 'really!' because of all the things that a little boy could want in the world, right? So I tried to explain to him that he could do this or he could do that - he could get a room makeover, because he sleeps a lot - and I thought we could get him a bed that looked like a truck. (Cyris loves monster trucks.) So there were a lot of different ideas but this one is it and you just kind of know eventually."
It took a while to make the decision and now more than a year later Cyris got his wish.
"We wanted to take our time with it so that it was something meaningful to Cyris," said Tanya.
When they go on their travel trailer adventures, it will include husband Steve and eldest son, Gage, 13, who have both been on this journey with Cyris and Tanya.
After a lot of suggestions were made to try to find the right wish for Cyris, Tanya was searching the Children's Wish Foundation's website when she found a story about a little boy in Edmonton that received a travel trailer and relayed the information to Cyris. He got really excited about the idea of going camping.
Tanya then contacted Cyris's wish coordinator to make it happen.
"So it's been two weeks of trying to plan the reveal and to keep it secret," said Tanya. "It's been pretty exciting and overwhelming at the same time."
The travel trailer was in hiding until the big reveal Friday and decaled by Signtek the day before with super hero images to make it extra special for Cyris, which he thought was "awesome!"
"He is super excited about the trailer," said Tanya. "Cyris isn't like any other kid I have ever known and this is just going to be perfect for him."
