Young cancer patient invades mariachi hearts

PORTLAND, Ore. — Renvek Larson is a charmer.

The boy — a Sutton resident and 3 years old, but just barely — has a mariachi outfit to prove it. His dad, Alan Larson, said the outfit — complete with a spangled sombrero — was a gift from the band Mariachi Portland, which they just happened to see one day at a restaurant. Alan wasn’t there, but he’s heard the story.

“When Renvek and my dad and my mom and my ex-wife all went there, he charmed them just by being himself, dancing, because he really, really enjoys music,” Alan said. “It’s something that we were actually planning on doing for him was getting him dance lessons as soon as he turned 3.”

But, like a whole lot of things in Renvek’s life, the dance lessons are on hold right now while Renvek battles cancer — ganglioneuroblastoma to be exact.

“It was very, very life changing for us,” Alan said of the diagnosis. “It totally changed the course.”

Renvek’s spent most of his time Portland, Ore., getting treatment since his diagnosis in September 2012. Luckily, Alan said, he has an understanding employer in Fairweather LLC, which employs him as an emergency medic flown out to remote oil and gas projects that need that kind of supervision.

“They’ve generously gave me time off to accommodate Renvek’s different needs,” he said.

It’s been a lot of unpaid time off, but he’s also been able to adjust his work rotation to three weeks on, three weeks off. That means he doesn’t need to buy as many plane tickets to Oregon.

Alan said his bosses are just the tip of the helpful iceberg, though.

“My family really kind of rallied behind me. I have a large family and they held several fundraisers,” he said.

One of those included a concert from the Native American band Medicine Dream. Matanuska Glacier Tours gave Renvek a ride in a small plane and one of Alan’s former teachers — Peter Burchell — is setting up a helicopter ride for the boy.

“He also pointed us out to MEA’s Round Up program and we were the recipients in March for that. They made one of my house payments and they partially filled my fuel tank,” he said.

Somebody else donated 200 gallons of fuel over the winter.

“Lots and lots of people have stepped forward,” Alan said. “There’s a young lady who works at Carrs who’s a survivor of neuroblastoma and she’s done her own little benefit there at Carrs.”

And then there’s the Ronald McDonald House, which has given him and Renvek’s other family members a place to stay while in Portland. The house is also a place volunteers go to paint with kids or bring dogs by for them to play with. They also distributed donated things like the tickets to see the Portland Trailblazers that Alan and his dad got to use.

As for the mariachi outfit, Alan said it was kind of a fluke that they even wound up at that restaurant. They didn’t know much about Portland and couldn’t navigate the city that well until they got a GPS unit, which directed them there.

When the band started up, Renvek actually jumped.

“He was surprised at first, and then he just loved it,” Alan said. “He just started getting up and dancing and showing them that he really appreciated the music.”

The band was touched and, along with their videographer, got to know Renvek and decided to make him the outfit. Presenting it had to wait because Renvek went back to Alaska for three weeks.

The Oregonian newspaper was there to document the presentation. Photos from that day wound up on news sites all over the web. They also gave him a small guitar.

“I got to talk to him on Skype and he was telling me, ‘daddy, I played with my mariachi band’ — rather than just ‘the mariachi band’ it was ‘my mariachi band.’”

But that’s the way Renvek is. He’s charming.

“He’s just a normal 3-year-old. He loves to play he loves dinosaurs and cars and stuff like that, and he loves to sing,” Alan said.

A donation account for the benefit of the family has been set up at the Matanuska Valley Federal Credit Union, Account No. 140467.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.