10-31-2013, 04:38 PM
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ohio-...y-20731726
A northern Ohio community is decking the halls to provide an early Christmas for an ailing boy with cancer who said he wanted to be home for the holiday.
As some towns readied for Halloween trick-or-treaters, the Christmas cheer was in high gear in Port Clinton on Wednesday despite 60-degree weather. Dozens of supporters gathered near 13-year-old Devin Kohlman's apartment as several tons of shaved ice was used to mimic drifting snow outside his window, and someone on a lift sprinkled the ice down in front of the glass.
It was the latest in the efforts to fulfill Devin's wish since he returned home from a hospital Sunday. The city on the bank of Lake Erie put up a tall Christmas tree within view of the apartment where the teen is resting, and residents decorated the park. Up went colorful strings of lights, reindeer cutouts and a red "Merry Christmas Devin" sign.
"It brings tears to my eyes," the city's safety-service director, Tracy Colston, told the Port Clinton News-Herald.
Hundreds of people, some in Santa hats, gathered to sing Christmas carols on Monday, and Santa himself even showed up — on a motorcycle. "Santa Claus on a motorcycle got the biggest smile I've seen in a while," Devin's mother, Alexis Kohlman, told the crowd, according to the newspaper.
A northern Ohio community is decking the halls to provide an early Christmas for an ailing boy with cancer who said he wanted to be home for the holiday.
As some towns readied for Halloween trick-or-treaters, the Christmas cheer was in high gear in Port Clinton on Wednesday despite 60-degree weather. Dozens of supporters gathered near 13-year-old Devin Kohlman's apartment as several tons of shaved ice was used to mimic drifting snow outside his window, and someone on a lift sprinkled the ice down in front of the glass.
It was the latest in the efforts to fulfill Devin's wish since he returned home from a hospital Sunday. The city on the bank of Lake Erie put up a tall Christmas tree within view of the apartment where the teen is resting, and residents decorated the park. Up went colorful strings of lights, reindeer cutouts and a red "Merry Christmas Devin" sign.
"It brings tears to my eyes," the city's safety-service director, Tracy Colston, told the Port Clinton News-Herald.
Hundreds of people, some in Santa hats, gathered to sing Christmas carols on Monday, and Santa himself even showed up — on a motorcycle. "Santa Claus on a motorcycle got the biggest smile I've seen in a while," Devin's mother, Alexis Kohlman, told the crowd, according to the newspaper.