ROYAL OAK, Mich. (WXYZ) — A young boy in Royal Oak with a passion for Halloween is inspiring others and helping others just like him.
Eleven-year-old Jackson Amick is an expert when it comes to Halloween, putting on a haunted house for all the neighborhood kids to enjoy.
For 11 months of the year, Mount Vernon Boulevard in Royal Oak is a quiet neighborhood street. But come October, the sound of screams are constant from inside Jackson haunted house.
"This is how we get a lot of people," Jackson said as he threw a foam skull on a string at 7 Action News' camera. "Hopefully, that didn't hurt anything.”
Jackson is just 11 years old with a passion for Halloween. The first haunted house in his dad's front yard popped up in 2019 and has grown ever since.
"Halloween is his passion, which was interrupted in 2020 when he was diagnosed,” Jackson's father Thom Amick said.
That year, Jackson was diagnosed with leukemia. Throughout his 26-month battle, one month remained on his mind.
“It was always a constant source of motivation for him to say, OK, I'm going to get back to the Halloween fun,'” Thom Amick said.
“Even when I was in the hospital, I was just watching stuff with all of this in it,” Jackson said pointing to the creatures in his haunted house.
Inspired by others on YouTube, his homemade attraction kept growing. This year, its purpose is growing too. Jackson and his family are selling sweatshirts and collecting donations, hoping to raise $2,000 to buy 100 special chemo shirts for kids at Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital, so kids like Jackson don't have to take off their shirt for doctors to access the port in their chest for treatment.
"It just makes you feel uncomfortable,” Jackson said.
"The poor children, they have to take off their shirt or take their shirt up to their neck and that adds to the not-so-enjoyable part of having cancer," Thom Amick said. “The chemo shirts unzip down to here (chest), so children can pull the flap down and they don't have to take their shirt off to get treatment, they can access the port.”
"Patients often feel vulnerable when removing their shirts to have their mediports accessed for chemotherapy," said Rose Freigeh, a certified child life specialist with Corewell Health, formerly Beaumont. "We are truly appreciative and grateful for Jackson recognizing this need and helping to raise funds to purchase these shirts for our patients.”
Now three years since diagnosis, Jackson shows no signs of cancer and his mission shows no sign of slowing, proving to people of all ages that even in life's scariest moments, you can always find a reason to smile
"I just love seeing the children being happy and just walking through this, even though the first time they get scared,” Jackson said.
"They know it’s meant to be fun," Thom Amick said. "If everyone gets scared a little, that’s OK — it brings joy.”
The haunted house will be open through Halloween at 405 Mount Vernon Boulevard in Royal Oak. You can buy a sweatshirt at avackson.com and can donate by Venmo at @Thomas-Amick. The family says $4 from each sweatshirt goes toward the fund for chemo shirts.
