Boy's touching call into SoCal radio show changes his life

SANTA FE SPRINGS (FOX 11) - Jack Chavez seems like your typical 6th grader. He loves video games and ice cream.

However, this 11-year-old lost his father 3 years ago, and he and his mom have had a tough time since.

"I'm still paying for my husband's funeral expenses," his mom, Carol Chavez, said.

Last week, Jack decided to call into Tim Conway Jr's show on KFI AM 640. He listened to the show when his dad was sick.

"When he went to dialysis and whenever we would wait for him, we would always listen to the show," he recalled.

"When I was 13 or 14, I always used to listen to talk radio," Conway said. "Every time I called, they would say you're not 18, you're not coming on. So I said if I ever get into talk radio, I'd always bring the kids on and let them say what they want to say."

Jack mentioned he just had a birthday and spent it with his mom in the hospital -- and that his dad was in Heaven.

"I said, 'What do you like about your mom? What's special about her?' and he said, 'Well, she takes care of me and she feeds me.' No kid has ever said that before," the radio host said.

Conway decided to take up a collection to get Jack, who suffers from a congenital heart disease, a great birthday gift.

"We were literally just going to pass around an old Dodgers hat around and raise a couple hundreds bucks," Conway explained. "Maybe $100, $200, and give this kid a nice present."

Instead, they set up a GoFundMe page to raise enough money to send him to Disney World. By the following Wednesday, the page had raised more than $34,000.

"Nobody asked Jack or Jack's mom Carol is she was Republican, or if she was black, white or Hispanic," Conway said. "Nobody asked about that. Everybody just threw in 10 bucks here, 20 bucks there. The average donation on GoFundMe was $54."

Jack and his mother are overwhelmed by the incredible support and believe it is nothing short of a miracle from their late father and husband.

"We think of him as our guardian angel and just to have that proof that he is and that we're being protected and cared for by something higher than us is just unbelievably amazing," Carol said.

Besides the birthday of a lifetime, Jack's mom says the money will help pay off bills and eventually help Jack go to college, which is something his father always wanted for him.

Jack offered a message for those who heard him and helped out:

"May God bless them, and they will always be in the world's hands."

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