Today in the streets of San Francisco, ahem, I mean, Gotham City, Batkid saved the day! The Make-A-Wish Foundation has a made a 5-year-old boy’s dream come true today as more than 12,000 volunteers arrived to support and cheer on Miles, a little super hero battling cancer.

Image Courtesy of Make-A-Wish SF
Image Courtesy of Make-A-Wish SF

For weeks, the Make-A-Wish Foundation has been asking for help and developing a super hero adventure for an adorable little boy. Miles, who has been battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia since he was 20-months old, wanted to be Batman and so the Foundation started working to make that happen. With the Bat Signal sent out, social media took over and soon, little Miles’ adventure became an extravaganza, with the DOJ and the President becoming involved.

The day began with a call for help from Police Chief, Greg Suhr. Batkid and the taller version, Batman (aka The Dark Knight) saves a damsel in distress, who was tied on train tracks. The pair arrived in the Batmobile (a Lamborghini) and disabled a bomb. Then BatKid stopped the Riddler from robbing a bank. As he was finishing his lunch, BatKid was called to save San Francisco Giants’ mascot, Lou Seal from the evil clutches of the Penguin at AT&T Park. At the end of the day, BatKid will meet the mayor at City Hall and get the key to the city from the mayor.

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The San Francisco Chronicle even printed 1,000 special editions of their newspaper with stories written by – who else- but Clark Kent.

batman16n-2-web

Twitter has been abuzz all day with the hashtag #SFBatKid. Photos and tweets from almost everyone, including President Obama have been filling up the feed. In the age of digital media, Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms are making a major impact in the area of social media journalism. The crowd in downtown San Francisco has been reporting to the world instantaneous up to the minute details using their camera phones, social media and hashtags. The power of social media and the power of the human spirit saves the day!

I’m happy to report that Miles’ cancer is now in remission. But many kids are still fighting life threatening illnesses. To donate to the Make-A-Wish Foundation so that other kids can have their wish granted, click HERE.

**UPDATED** 11/17/13: As if I couldn’t cry anymore after hearing this story, The SF Chronicle goes and releases this video of little Miles’ day. Sniff sniff…

Batkid from San Francisco Chronicle on Vimeo.