Surprises aren’t always a good thing for 16-year-old Jacob Sears.
A brain tumor caught the Lynwood teen off guard in 2000, but he was lucky enough to fight his way back to health. His older brother Nicholas later lost his life to a rare form of brain cancer.
A different kind of surprise awaited Sears this week.
On Monday, he arrived at a Bellevue car dealership expecting to give a talk about cancer. Instead, he was greeted by a devilish-looking character with blue skin and a bright red suit.
Nothing to fear. That character was the Blue Genie, there to provide Sears with a day of adventure that would feature rides in a brand-new Dodge Challenger, a trip on a seaplane, a VIP afternoon at the Woodland Park Zoo, a VIP visit to the Experience Music Project, high-speed go-cart racing, and a night at the Hotel Monaco.
“He really had no idea,” said Sears’ mother, Jonae Cachero. “He’s totally surprised.”
“I was nervous, and just thinking of the lines for my talk,” Sears said.
The dream-day was compliments of Experience Genie, an organization at least partially dedicated to providing fun experiences for “people who need a different outlook on life,” as founder Joshua Dawson puts it.
Experience Genie has organized over 35 excursions, with the trips including anything from skydiving and sailing to cruising in fighter jets and spending a day at trapeze school.
It sounds a lot like the Make-a-Wish Foundation, but there are differences.
For one thing, Experience Genie isn’t a non-profit, and it doesn’t survive on donations. One of the organization’s goals – aside from showing people a good time – is attracting people to its website (www.experiencegenie.com), which partners with a Canadian division of the French company SmartBox to sell pre-packaged gift outings.
As such, Experience Genie is not a strictly charity-based organization. Dawson has been known to wander the streets and select random people for his dream-like journeys, all in the name of drumming up publicity.
But the Montreal native said his favorite part of the job is granting wishes for local heroes. He has a soft spot in his heart for cancer patients and survivors, due to the fact that his dad died of the disease six years ago.
Sears has a clean bill of health today, but he doesn’t take it for granted. He thinks often about his older brother.
“It’s hard for me sometimes, knowing that he can’t enjoy all the things I’m doing,” he said.
Sears worked this summer as a junior counselor at Camp Sparkle, a kids’ summer camp run by the cancer support group Gilda’s Club.
“I enjoy being around kids and helping other people out,” he said.
On Monday, it was Experience Genie providing the help.
