Last weekend, 80,000+ people had the time of their lives at Dragon Con; and one little guy who wasn’t there, thanks to his school counselor, got to have the time of his life, too. We received the following email from this counselor’s sister today after publishing an article noting we are accepting stories of “real heroics” from Dragon Con; and she was right for sending it – thank you, Gretchen.
“I am submitting a story I’d like to share of something amazing that happened between my sister and Stan Lee while we were at Dragon Con. I can’t tell the story any better than she did, so I have copied and pasted her Facebook post below. I also added the link to her page so that you can see the video message that Stan Lee sent to the little guy. Here’s her story…..”
I’m late with this post because I haven’t been able to find the words… here goes. It’s lengthy.
I’m an elementary school counselor.
One of my students.. He’s been with me since kindergarten..is now in fifth grade and is very, very shy. (Always has been).
…last year, he learned I’m a fan of superheros. Imagine my surprise when he suddenly became a chatterbox! We were both in shock and disbelief (for separate reasons. Lol)
The only thing I’ve known about him since kindergarten is that he likes art. And he’s good at it. He loves to illustrate, but doesn’t like to show his work (again, extremely bashful).
But now I know if I want him to talk, all I have to do is ask about an upcoming Marvel movie.
So without telling him why, I asked him to draw a picture of his favorite superhero. The next day, he brought me a picture of Spidey holding Cap’s shield, drawn on a sheet of notebook paper, and folded up into a square.
I put that paper in an envelope like it was gold…and headed off to Dragoncon.
I wanted to connect this child with his hero.
Flash forward to Saturday…. Knowing Stan Lee was there and signing autographs, knowing the line was going to be very long, and that I wasn’t there to buy anything, I figured they wouldn’t let me go up (since I wasn’t a paying customer).
My plan became to find a kind soul in line, willing to take my tiny, folded piece of paper and leave it with Stan.
So Alleea and I made our way through the massive line getting into the building, and then to his area.
By some mad stroke of luck, there was no one in line. Probably because he wasn’t scheduled for another hour. But there he was. Sitting at that table.
We walked up to the attendant, explained we weren’t there to buy an autograph, but to give him a gift, and were told, “Sure! Go ahead. Just put your cameras away.”
…with phone in pocket, and trembling hands, we approached the Legend himself in complete disbelief of what was happening.
I told him who I was, that I had a gift drawn by one of my students. “He’s a huge fan and I just want to go home and tell him that you own a piece of his art.”
Before my frazzled brain knew what was happening I was hearing his assistant say, “take out your phone.”
The following is the result..
I cried all the way back down the stairs and up the street.
**Update: Meet my friend Humberto. He would like to be part of this post. So with Mom’s permission, I’m adding his photo below**
Original post, including picture and video, by Summer Hughes.
Submitted by Gretchen Runnion.
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