He's a community crusader

Middle schooler takes campaign against disease onto the airwaves.

By C. Ron Allen
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

DEERFIELD BEACH · Like many boys his age, Dylan Endlich has fond memories of his grandpa -- the stories he shared with him, the times they played together in their Coral Springs living room and the time they went to Disney World.

But perhaps the most memorable was the time his ailing grandpa came to his baseball game.

"It was my third season and the first time I hit a triple," said Dylan, 11, a sixth-grader at Deerfield Beach Middle. "He hugged me and kept telling me how it was great. I felt good."

So when his grandfather died in May 2005 of mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer associated with exposure to asbestos rather than smoking, Dylan began a crusade to draw attention to this disease.

He sent a letter to seven local classic rock 'n' roll radio stations asking them to play a song from musician and songwriter Warren Zevon, who died of mesothelioma in September 2003. He asked them to briefly educate the public on the disease.

"I am doing community service for my school," wrote Dylan, who was recognized recently as a South Florida Sun-Sentinel Kid of Character for kindness in the program that recognizes students who best exemplify the Broward County School District's character education traits. "Thousands of people are diagnosed yearly and there is no cure, but there is hope. I am trying to get people aware of this horrible, deadly disease."

Officials from one radio station told him his request did not fit their format, Dylan said. But Courtney Young, a disc jockey at Miami's WBGG, Big 105.9, agreed to his requests.

"Big 105.9 will participate in a two-fer of Warren Zevon during the Big Lunch at noon on Tuesday, Sept. 26," Young posted on her station's Web site.

Dylan's other community service project was collecting old blankets, paper towels, empty shoeboxes and newspapers for the Humane Society of Broward County.

He also adopted two dogs, one that was homeless after Hurricane Katrina and another that was about to be killed, from the Humane Society.


This is one in a series of stories on students who best exemplify the Broward County School District's eight character education traits -- cooperation, responsibility, citizenship, kindness, respect, honesty, self-control and tolerance -- and patriotism as part of all eight.

C. Ron Allen can be reached at crallen@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7917.