- Can you hold that and make sure it doesn't--
- It won't fall over.
It'll be fine.
♪ If it falls I will catch it. ♪
- [Man] You haven't asked where we're going yet.
- Where are we going?
- I can't tell you.
- But.
- Do you love how I asked you to ask
where we're going - Yeah
- and then I don't tell you nothing?
- Yeah. - We're going to the beach!
- What?
- Yeah.
- Yeah!
I feel alive.
- You ate a bug.
- Oh, I wasn't expecting it.
It just went
and I was like, .
- How'd it taste?
- Good protein, you know?
♪ Here we go. ♪
- I'm in my swim trunks.
- So, we are going to the Lighthouse Family Retreat.
This is a spot for families
who have all been affected by cancer in some way.
Also, there's families there who are volunteers.
So, they are just there
because they want to give up their summer vacation
to help another family.
So, while we're there we're gonna--
- We're gonna get a little bit of beach time.
I'm in my swim trunks.
- There will be beach time.
- I love my swim trunks.
- But,
we are going to be
part of throwing a big birthday party.
It's like that line we put in on the Kid President videos,
"Treat everybody like it's--
- Thursday.
- No.
- Treat everybody
like it's their birthday.
And I mean everybody.
Oh, yeah yeah yeah.
- Or Thursday.
- Thursday.
- We'll treat everybody like it's Thursday.
- [Boy] We were off.
I mean, Brad was.
I slept most of the time.
- [Brad] Look at this joker.
Look at him.
- [Boy] I was feelin' good.
Well rested and pumped,
to be at the beach!
And right when I got there,
immediately I started making friends.
Some of them knew me from the Kid President videos,
but then they started to see me as a normal kid like them.
One girl made me mad though,
she said, "What are you tryin' to do with your hair?"
- [Male] Yeah, what are you tryin' to do?
- Hey, don't judge me!
I thought this was going to be a retreat
with people who were really sick.
Honestly, I was thinking it was going to be quiet and sad.
But it was totally the opposite.
I got to play some beach frisbee,
cannon ball into a pool,
Play some spicy card games.
Uno.
- You're about to get beat.
- [Girl] Ooh, draw two.
- [Boy] The whole time though,
I had no idea what everyone was going through.
- [Boy] Hey.
- Hello.
- [Boy] This is our friend, Makenzye.
She's one of the strongest
and cheerful people I've ever met.
Until we talked to her,
we had no idea what she's been going through.
- When I was little,
my mom told me that I was born with a left heart syndrome.
- She had Hypoplastic Dextrocardia Syndrome.
That's when your heart's on opposite side of your body.
And she started having surgeries
when she was three weeks old.
- I got my new heart in 2014.
The doctor came in there,
was like, "We got a heart for you."
Me and my mom was crying,
and we was so happy.
2016 I started
feeling sick.
When I went to the doctor they said I had an infection.
They took my mom into a different room and told her.
When she came back she was crying,
and I was like, "What's wrong?"
And she was like, "You have cancer."
I was like, "What?
"I have cancer?"
- She had PTLD,
which is called, Post-transplant lymphoma disorder.
And it's the only type of cancer you get
if you have a transplant.
It was just like, "No way."
And my main concern is,
I don't want anything to attack her heart.
We worked to hard to get her heart.
- One time I stayed in the hospital,
like for three months
and then I end up missing my little brother's birthday,
'cause they didn't want to discharge us
until midnight and stuff.
I end up missing my birthday last year on Christmas
because I was in the hospital too.
I didn't really get to celebrate my birthday.
- [Boy] So, one of the big reasons why we came all this way,
so we could be part of throwing a giant UNbirthday party.
It's something the Lighthouse retreat people do
all the time.
It's one thing to celebrate people on their birthday,
but there's something extra special
about celebrating on a normal day.
Just to say, we're really glad you're here.
We don't say that enough to each other here.
Being a person is hard sometimes,
we should give people high fives
just for getting out of bed.
When the kids started showing up,
it was so awesome.
The retreat people were there giving high fives,
cheering for them like the big deals they really are.
It was so easy to forget what these people
had really been going through.
I mean, some of them were going through
some really heavy stuff,
but tonight was just really about joy and celebrating.
I got to play games with kids
and Brad did the limbo, very poorly.
Thankfully, he was okay and we just laughed it off.
It was one of the most happiest places I've ever been.
It was magic, pure magic.
Just love and joy,
doing things that we should be doing every day,
celebrating the people around us and dancing.
We always gotta dance.
Oh, look at you go Brad.
Kill it.
I think my favorite moment is
when we broke out the karaoke backpack.
- When I was in fifth grade,
I dreamed of a karaoke backpack.
And then, I learned how to put it together
with welding and batteries.
Dreams come true.
- [Boy] There were no worries, no fears, no judgments,
just joy, just friends cheering each other on.
We sang together and laughed together.
It's the kind of support some of these kids
give each other all the time.
Like Makala.
- Me and Makenzye we're...
That's my ride or die.
That's my sister.
We love each other too much, it hurts a lot.
- [Man] What's it like to have a sister like that?
- It's cool.
Like, sometimes siblings don't get along,
but me and Makala we been with each other our whole life.
- That is her rock.
Every time Makenzye gets super super sick,
she calls for Makala.
Makenzye almost died this past March,
and that's who she wanted.
Makala.
- It gets annoying ,
but she's my sister and I'd do anything for her.
- [Boy] We matter to each other.
Joy is something much deeper than being happy.
Joy is something we live and breathe and give each other.
- Makenzye has to go in the hospital
for long period of time,
it brings us joy because we're all together in that room.
For holidays, we have to be in the hospital.
Recent Thanksgiving we were there playing family feud.
And it just brought me joy.
You know, it was a sad moment,
her bein' in the hospital, we were there.
- I go by motivation by Walt Disney.
He says, "Keep moving forward."
That's my favorite quote.
Next week, I have to go to the doctor
and I'm worried what's gonna happen.
And what will they tell me,
'cause I have to get a CT scan and stuff.
But I'm gonna focus on where I'm here right now,
and worry about that later.
- Try this, take a breath.
Isn't that amazing?
It's called breathing.
You're gonna do it a lot.
And nobody knows exactly how much,
so enjoy it.
Pay attention.
Take brain pictures.
Because amazing things will happen every day.
These kids and these families, they're amazing.
They taught me we can be lighthouses for each other,
always remind each other that there's joy,
and that there's hope.
And there's always a reason to dance.
If you're looking for it.
So, no matter what's going on,
no matter where you are,
there's so many reasons to throw a party right now.
You just gotta be paying attention.
Hey, thanks for helping me pay attention.
- [Man] No man, thank you.