To all,

Dante Erk is a 7 year old boy who is currently undergoing a bone marrow transplant in a hospital in DC.  At the age of 2 he stopped developing and a brain tumor was discovered.  After multiple rounds of treatments to treat one problem, the chemo killed his bone marrow to the point that it couldn’t support his body with platelets, etc.  He needed a bone marrow transplant or he would die.  His 5 year old sister is his match and she is there with him preparing to undergo this surgery.  He has to undergo 4 days of chemo prior  to starting the bone marrow transplant and then after the transplant will stay for 3-4 weeks in the hospital due to having a very weak immune system when coming out of the transplant.

A few weeks ago I took Dante fishing on the boat and this kid became instantly hooked on bass fishing.  He comes to the house and I give him all of my old bass fishing magazines and all he talks about is fishing.  We could all learn from this kid.  His courageous battle with his health issues would be enough to bring anyone down, however this kid is as upbeat as any 9 year old.  He stepped off of the elevator last week to start this whole ordeal and looked up at his mom and said he was ready to get his life back.  I have enclosed his address below if you would like to send him a card, and I am putting together a new tackle box for him if anyone wants to donate any tackle, line, etc to the box.  He can’t have visitors for the next two weeks but I plan to go see him once he can so this gives me a couple of weeks.    If you get a chance, drop this kid a card.  He could use it!!