Batkid Saves San Francisco!

I really hate the terms “heartwarming” and feel good,” as in “the heartwarming, feel good movie/story/person of the year.” But you have to have a heart made of stone not to be touched by the story of Miles Scott, the five-year-old-leukemia survivor now famously known around the world as the Batkid Who Saved San Francsico, er, Gotham!

In case you missed it, Miles Scott is 5-year-old California kid who has been battling leukemia his entire life. Thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, last Friday Miles got to live his dream of being Batman for a day. In a cool turn of events, Miles had no idea what was in store for him Friday when his parents suggested a trip to San Francisco to buy him his very own Batman costume.

The Internet and social media were all over this from the time a few weeks ago when Make-A-Wish announced their plans for Miles, and an estimated 11,000 San Franciscans turned out to cheer the Batkid on! His day started with saving a damsel in distress who was tied to the Riddler’s bomb on the Powell Street cable car line. Then it was to Union Square where Batkid, with help from the real Batman driving a Lamborghini Batmobile, foiled the Riddler’s attempt to rob a downtown bank. From there, the dynamic duo took off for AT&T Park where there were reports that the Penguin had kidnapped San Francisco Giants mascot Lou Seal. The Penguin never stood a chance once Batkid got there, and afterwards he even got to run the bases! Finally, it was off to City Hall where Batkid was given the keys to the city (made of chocolate, natch) from San Francisco mayor Ed Lee.

Because of his illness, Miles never got the chance to live a normal, healthy childhood, and the best part of this story is that his cancer is now in remission. Years of having toxic drugs pumped into his body had taken their toll on the kid, but now Miles is robust and healthy enough to don the cape and cowl to bust crime and to send a powerful message that no matter what your age or your hardship, never give up!!! Miles himself is probably too young to comprehend that, but I’m sure his parents never expected their little boy to become a superhero for a day and that so many people would come out to support the Batkid.

This story, of course, went totally viral, and people from around the world Twitter’d their support for the Batkid, including President Barack Obama. Even the Dark Knight himself, Christian Bale (who knows a thing or two about bringing the Batman to young cancer patients), got caught up in the heroics of the Batkid. “Wasn’t that fantastic?” Bale said to the website Vulture on Saturday. “It’s so touching. He must have been bewildered. Hopefully, later on, he’ll be able to look back and say, ‘Oh my God, how amazing.’ This little kid — what a wonderful day for the little fella! It’s just fantastic, seeing all those people who were out there to support it.”

And I think that’s the way everyone felt — real happiness for this brave little fighter. Even the most jaded of city slickers couldn’t help by be touched by this story, and to feel pride that even in these cold, nasty times, we San Franciscan (and people in general) can still come together to cheer on a little kid they don’t even know, and bask in the happiness of it all. Because there’s far too little happiness in this world, that’s for sure.

As another bonus, we San Franciscans got a big shot of civic pride in knowing that our city, which is cool enough already, would go to such great lengths to makes this kid’s dream come true. Like we need another reason to love our city! We love coming together for fun stuff, especially on a workday, and something that involved so much happiness (and quite possibly taking a really long lunch) is right up our alley.

At the end of the day, even the biggest Grinch couldn’t help but be moved, even if just a little bit, because this is the type of thing that would make anyone’s heart grow ten times bigger! You can’t see the big smile on Batkid’s face in the pics above and not have one creep across your own, and not feel something right there that kinda, sorta restores your faith in humanity. That’s hard to find in this day and age, but perhaps in these tough times people still need — for want of a better term — a heartwarming feel-good story.

Thanks Batkid!

Check out the gallery after the jump!

And if you’d like to make a donation to ensure that the Make-A-Wish Foundation continues to make dreams comes true for kids like Miles, click here.