TIGARD, Ore. (KOIN 6) — A Tigard elementary student with a debilitating disease is getting help from an unlikely source – not a special medicine or doctor, but a night full of music.
Seven-year-old Jair Bernal Gutierrez was born with a form of muscular dystrophy. His older classmates wanted to buy his family a wheelchair accessible van, so they put their musical talents to the test. The event raised $1500 and about 100 people attended the event.
“We have some pop, kind of folk, bluegrass-type music,” Everett Dalton said. The Tigard High School senior first fell in love with music when he was five. Twelve years later, he rocks out on guitar at his school.
The band he’s playing with may be new, but the idea he had to help Bernal Gutierrez’s family has been brewing for months, and that’s when his passion and National Honor Society project collided.
“They try to get you to do stuff you’re actually passionate about, so I thought, I could do a concert,” Dalton explained.
They played 23 songs over two hours for Jair, whose family said he loves baseball, math and toys, but the disease has weakened his muscles so much he’ll probably never be like his favorite action figure, the Hulk.
“It’s not easy,” Jair’s sister Maria said. “My friends ask me to hang out and I can’t and they ask why, and I’m like because of my brother.”
Maria is a junior at Tualatin High School and helps take care of Jair every day. But on Thursday, Dalton and his friends hope you will, too.
“I’m just hoping to have as many people there as possible so we can raise as much money as possible for Jair’s family,” Dalton said.
The Tigard High School auditorium can fit 500 people, but some might say that’s not as big as these student’s hearts to help a boy’s future look more bright.
“All of the doctors are surprised how he’s growing, he’s getting smart and strong,” Maria said.
The primarily Pacific Northwest charity, Sparrow Clubs USA, selected Jair to be the recipient of Thursday’s donations. It’s the nation’s only youth-based charity and provides financial and emotional support for critically-ill children and their families, but also empowers kids to help kids through charitable service to their communities. To learn more about Sparrow Clubs USA, click here.