Tampa boy with leukemia gets shopping spree

TAMPA — A pair of Converse high-tops, an Xbox 360, diamond-studded earrings and clothes were just a few items on 15-year-old Kelvin Lozada Perez's shopping list.

He rolled up to University Mall in a limousine on Tuesday morning, feeling like a million bucks.

"I couldn't wait," said the Tampa teen.

In December, doctors diagnosed him with acute myelogenous leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. He's undergoing chemotherapy. All Children's Hospital referred him to the Children's Dream Fund, a nonprofit based in St. Petersburg. His only wish: A shopping spree.

Feet clad in Air Jordans, wrists wrapped in hospital bracelets, he glided from one end of the mall to the next. Heads turned as shoppers speculated about his identity.

He wore a grin under the spotlight. Some thought he was a celebrity. Strangers stopped him. He talked about wanting to make a rap album and calling himself "Carnage D."

He got the phone number of the mall airbrush artist, Rod Ballard, in case he needs album art.

Ballard painted him a custom shirt. Kelvin asked for "313" in blue across the front — area code for Detroit, where he once lived — and a big "D" in Old English lettering above it. And on the back, a portrait of Tupac Shakur, his favorite rapper. Kelvin liked it so much he changed into it in the mall restroom.

In 2 1/2 hours of shopping, he picked out about $1,500 worth of brand-name clothing, sunglasses, electronics, cologne and jewelry. He used his cell phone to fill in friends between purchases.

The only thing left on his list was a present for his mother, Matilda Lozada Perez, who accompanied him Tuesday along with his father, Sixto Lozada Perez.

Kelvin saved a gift card for his mother.

He thanked God for this opportunity, and also the Children's Dream Fund, saying, "Thank you so much, put that in big letters."

He said he didn't want anything else.

He climbed back into the stretch Expedition, surrounded by bags of merchandise and waved goodbye to the mall.

"Seeing that smile makes my day," said Kristin Bedinghaus, dream coordinator of the Children's Dream Fund. "I see Kelvin in so many different lights. Today was one I want to leave in my head because he was the happiest."

Stephanie Bolling can be reached at (813) 226-3408 or sbolling@sptimes.com.