San Diego

OB Boy Donates Lemonade Proceeds to Pal Fighting Muscular Dystrophy

At Dylan Rodrigues' Ocean Beach lemonade stand, maybe the only thing sweeter than what he's serving-up are the causes his sales have helped fund the past three years.

From art supplies for children at Rady's Children's Hospital, to backpacks for the homeless, to teaming up to help provide gifts for Syrian refugees.

“It just feels nice to do it,” Dylan said.

But it’s the 9-year-old's latest cause that truly hits close to home. He’s helping raise money for stem cell treatments for his 6-year-old buddy, Kalel Hamilton. The two grew up together in San Diego before Kalel moved to northern California.

Kalel’s teachers voiced concern over him moving slower than other children and getting up slower after falling. Soon after he was diagnosed with Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy, a genetic disorder with no cure that causes muscle degeneration and weakness.

Dylan showed us how he pulled his lemonade stand onto Bacon Street Saturday and went to work.

He donated $200, more than half the money he made, to his buddy's $10,000 a piece stem cell treatments.

“Thank you for fundraising for me,” Kalel said during a video conversation with his friend.

Two treatments in and Kalel’s father, Rick Hamilton, says he’s seeing results in his son’s log lifts at physical therapy.

“He’s gone from seven to 80 on a probably three pound log and his run times have improved, " said his father.

While Kalel's health improves, Dylan will be planning more lemonade sales to help fund treatments.

“I hope Kal is going to do better. He's going to get stronger until they can find a cure for it,” Dylan said.

And if Kalel's name sounds familiar, that's because it was the birthname given to Superman.

Kalel’s parents have grown the #FlexForKal hashtag on social media and set up a public donation page.

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