Medic befriends local boy, sends him to Disney World

Gavin Beard, 6, opens gifts Saturday in Peltier Park in Thibodaux.

Abby Tabor/Staff

Justin Tabor's favorite superhero is Captain Crayola.

The Acadian Ambulance medic became a fan last August when the Captain's alter-ego, a small boy named Gavin Beard, needed medical transport from his hometown of Thibodaux to New Orleans' Children's Hospital.

Gavin was born weeks premature, leaving him with medical problems affecting everything from his spine to his breathing to his heart. Doctors thought Gavin would probably not survive his first few years of life. If he did, the odds were that he would be crippled for life.

When Tabor picked him up, he was 6. And he was a big bundle of fidgets, wiggles and laughter.

Gavin's doctors had given him coloring sheets for the trip, but, as Tabor readied him to leave, the boy realized he didn't have any crayons.

"He said ‘We can't leave. I'm Captain Crayola,' " Tabor remembered. "I need my colors."

Tabor and his partner, moved by the boy's pleas, rushed across the street to buy a pack of crayons.

"No one has ever been so thankful to have a box of crayons as he was," Tabor said. "I knew right then that this was a special kid."

Tabor, also of Thibodaux, stayed in touch with Gavin and his mother, Misty. Knowing the toll a nonstop barrage of surgeries and tests can take on a family, he decided to do something to help.

Through his coworkers, Tabor was able to get in touch with the Blake McKay Fight for Life Foundation. That group helped raise enough money to grant Gavin his biggest wish — a trip to Disney World.

"At first, when they asked him what he wanted, he told them he wanted a Lady Antebellum CD," Tabor said. "They told him he needed to think a little bigger."

Tabor also started to raise money to help buy some things for the family's house. Initially, he had hoped to raise $800, but word spread fast on Facebook.

He got $1,200 in one day. Within weeks, he had collected more than $4,000 from about 80 donors and received gifts from various local businesses.

"It just blew me away," Tabor said. "People I'd never met were coming in to help out."

Saturday morning, a stretch limousine pulled up to the family house to pick up Gavin and his family. When it pulled in at Peltier Park, Tabor was waiting.

Emerging from the limo, Gavin's face lit up. He sprinted in a child's stumble toward Tabor and wrapped his tiny arms around him.

Gavin barely noticed the huge piles hidden under tarps or the crowd of his friends and supporters who had burst into applause.

One by one, Tabor pulled off the tarps, revealing a treasure trove: a brand new bunk bed, TV sets, a radio, a big electric toy truck to ride in and many others. There were also plenty of items the family sorely needed: a new refrigerator, washer and dryer to replace the ones that had "gone to appliance heaven."

With each uncovered tarp, Misty gasped softly.

"I'm so overwhelmed by the generosity, I can't speak," she said. "I don't know how — I don't know what I would do without y'all."

Among the gifts, sandwiched between TVs and toys, Tabor pulled out a small red cape. On the back, with a logo that would make Superman proud, was a big yellow "C."

"Put this on, Captain Crayola," he said, bending low to give it to his hero.

"Thank you," the Captain said. "You're a really good friend."



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