UAW Invites 9 Year Old Cancer Patient to Manage the Ford Mustang Plant

Eli Williams is like so many other 9 year old third grade boys in America in the fact that he loves the Ford Mustang. Sadly, Eli suffers from medulloblastoma – a form of brain cancer that he has been fighting since late 2011. Eli’s story first came into the spotlight when the Mustang Club of American and Shelby American held an online fundraiser for Eli’s family that helped raise $4,000 to help cover the cost of his treatment. After the huge national Mustang club held that fundraiser, the UAW decided that they wanted to do something special for Eli and his family. One of Eli’s dreams was to see the Mustang built and that was where the UAW knew that they could help. Their plan was to pay to have Eli travel from his home in Alabama to the Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Flat Rock Michigan where he would serve as the honorary plant manager for a day.

Earlier this week, Eli Williams and his family arrived at the Flat Rock plant after stops at an aquarium in Cleveland and Niagara Falls where he was officially named the plant manager of the Flat Rock production facility where the Ford Mustang is made. For one day, this 9 year old Mustang lover got a chance to try to forget about his illness and serve as the man in charge of the plant that has built every new Ford Mustang over the last decade. In addition to serving as the plant manager for the day, Eli got a tour of the plant (of course…since he was in charge), a Mustang hat signed by Ford boss Bill Ford Jr., a variety of Mustang collectables and tours of both the River Rouge truck plant and the Henry Ford museum. Eli rode to his day of running the Flat Rock facility in a brand new blue Mustang GT and later in his day, he got to ride shotgun as a 2014 Ford Mustang GT Convertible rolled off of the assembly line. It was surely a remarkable experience for Eli and his family that was capped off by meeting Ford boss Bill Ford Jr.

The UAW is in the news a great deal for things that are relatively negative but for making this young man’s dream come true – the UAW deserves a round of applause from all of us. While paying for this trip for Eli and his family won’t help him recover from his illness any faster but they made one of his dreams come true. Eli’s battle with cancer isn’t over yet and while the family had to return home for chemotherapy treatments on Friday, young Eli got to not only see his favorite car come to life…he got to be the man in charge of the plant that makes every new Ford Mustang.

Mad respect to Ford Motor Company and the UAW for making this special day happen for this little young man.

There are a bunch more pictures with quotes from various Ford Motor Company and UAW representatives that you can view by clicking here.

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Images: at.Ford.com