Watching Tampa Bay's sports heroes take the ice from their home bench makes this 14-year-old smile.
“Yes, it's really cool,” said Cole Eicher.
But it's Eicher who's our community hero, honored by the Tampa Bay Lightning Sunday night.
"I was down at the bench, and the hockey players were coming from their locker room down on the ice, and they were just like, game on, ready... Just like cancer, if you take it that way. It's a game. You got to beat it. Beat cancer,” he said.
He did just that. After a February 2014 brain cancer diagnosis and after months of chemotherapy and radiation, he wasn't done.
"I saw this little lounge area and I was like, hey, why can't we have this as a teen lounge? So I raised the money, obviously, and I was like, that would be an awesome idea,” he said.
You know what else is an awesome idea? To raise more money for kids going through the same challenges he did. Cole raised $10,000 for All Children’s Hospital.
He says he knows how it feels to have backup, people cheering you on when you're in the thick of a battle.
“All the support that was with me and all the people that supported me and stuff like that, helped me to get through my cancer,” said Eicher.
So Cole and his mom are organizing a ‘Gold Out’ game to benefit the fight against childhood cancer, partnering with the team and the American Cancer Society on January 17.
You can buy tickets to watch the game from his special suite.
He says it's the least he can do.
"I know how it feels when something is given to me,” Cole explained.
He hopes you or perhaps your company will give back -- making you a hero too.
"I know God has a plan for me and has a plan for everyone, and he's just gonna make it happen," he said.
-----
