LOCKPORT: Tot with cancer treated to birthday bash

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September 25, 2007

By Joyce Miles/milesj@gnnewspaper.com The Lockport Union-Sun %26 Journal Tue Sep 25, 2007, 02:08 AM EDT

He seemed leery at first, but gradually a genuine smile found its way onto Alex Haws’ tired little face.

Between the ride from his house to the fire house in Lockport police car 24, a spin around the block in Engine 1, the presents, the noisemakers and the pizza, Alex ended up having a pretty impressive fifth birthday shindig Monday afternoon.

Maybe it was because, for a little while at least, the joys of boyhood were stronger than the cancer that’s taking his life.

“This is wonderful,” Alex’s mom, Aimee, said through tears. “He’s having a great time.”

Alex isn’t turning 5 until Nov. 14, but the timetable on memory-making celebrations is pushed up by fate.

Alex may not live until his birthday, so representatives of Essential Care for Children, a pediatric division of Hospice, teamed up with the City of Lockport to give Alex a birthday party besting all the ones that came before it.

Essential Care child life specialist Elizabeth Collins called Mayor Michael Tucker last week with a simple request. She wanted Alex, a big fan of firefighting stuff, to be able to meet a few firefighters, see a few trucks and have birthday cake in the firehouse. As Tucker made the arrangement with Chief Tom Passuite, word spread around City Hall, and a full-blown birthday bash evolved.

“A couple people talked to a couple people and here we are,” Tucker said. “Everybody rallies around something like this. How could you not?”

The party kicked off around 4:20 p.m. Monday on Niagara Street, where more than 100 firefighters, police officers and other city employees lined either side of the street waiting to greet an unsuspecting Alex at the fire house.

The guest of honor was running a bit behind, since he’d been napping at his Erie Street home. When his chauffeur, Police Officer Todd Chenez, opened the door of car 24, Alex emerged dressed in a child-sized firefighters’ coat and helmet, still looking sleepy and clinging tightly to his dad Brian. He remained close at his dad’s side for much of the party.

“He’s on morphine for the pain. I think he’s a little overwhelmed,” Brian Haws said.

The scene was bittersweet at times as strangers tried to connect with Alex and Alex tried to be left alone. Sitting in his dad’s lap while well-wishers talked to him and attempted presentations, Alex declared he wanted pizza. Later, when several cameramen trained lenses on him at the same time, he held up a hand in front of his face and asked them to go away.

Slowly, though, Alex warmed to the affection of so many strangers.

A ride around the block in LFD Engine 1 brought a broad, approving smile from the small boy, as well as thank-you handshakes for driver Randy Parker and escort Luca Quagliano.

“(Alex) loved it. He absolutely loved it,” Quagliano said.

A table full of presents inside the fire house truck bay won Alex over, too. He tore open packages slowly at first, then picked up the pace like he was wondering whether the next gift could top the last one. The fleet of new toy vehicles grew with every package unwrapped.

Then, with half the presents still waiting to be opened, he quit for a while.

A few feet away his sister Danielle, 3, and mayor’s secretary Erin Buerger were playing with paper noisemakers and Alex decided that looked like more fun. Pretty soon, he, his sister and another tot were chasing each other around the truck bay like they were in the middle of a perfectly normal day.

During the party, mom Aimee struggled, at times, to speak without betraying too much emotion.

The Haws just returned from Disney World, where they were sent courtesy of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The family wasn’t supposed to take the trip until October, but Alex’s declining health forced a schedule change.

“He may not see Christmas,” Aimee said. “We’ve got 500 pictures. ... (Alex) loved it.”

In December 2004, Alex was diagnosed with hepatoblastoma, a rare liver cancer that afflicts 1 in 1 million children. The hereditary condition claimed an aunt on his father’s side of the family when she was 5 years old.

The Haws family is the subject of a benefit being held from 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Lockport Holiday Inn. A spaghetti dinner is being prepared by volunteers from Trinity Lutheran Church, with sauce donated by DeFlippo’s Restaurant, and the donations for a basket raffle and Chinese auction are piling up, according to Essential Care representative Ann Marie Moriarty.

Three hundred tickets are being sold at $20 a piece to raise money for the family; while Brian remains at work at Valu in Lockport, Aimee is hoping to take an unpaid leave of absence from Rich Products to stay home with Alex in his last days.

Moriarty is trying to get the word out that anyone who wants to attend the benefit should buy their tickets in advance. The room that’s booked at Holiday Inn only holds 300, and she’s concerned organizers will be forced to turn people away at the door if they wait until Sunday to buy in, she said.

Cash donations to the Alex Haws Fund are being accepted at all Citizens Bank locations.

Lockport Hickory Club, the police officers’ union, contributed $1,500 during Alex’s party Monday and Officer Chenez, the club president, challenged other city employee unions to ante up too.

For more information about the benefit or the Haws fund, call Moriarty at 430-7704.

If you go

• What: Haws family benefit

• When: 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday

• Where: Lockport Holiday Inn, 515 S. Transit St.

• Admission: $20 per adult; $15 per child

• Features: A spaghetti dinner, basket raffle and Chinese auction featuring items including a Joe Whalen painting, Sabres gear and a football autographed by Buffalo Bill J.P. Losman

• Advance ticket purchases requested. Visit the Holiday Inn front desk or call Ann Marie Moriarty at 430-7740

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