Zach Osterhoudt has been fascinated by trucks since he was a child. “I don’t know exactly why,” says the 17-year-old, who recently graduated from Highland High School and is set to begin college at SUNY Cortland in the fall. “When I was growing up, my uncles had trucks. A lot of my friends and neighbors had trucks and tractors, and I was just fascinated by them.”

By the time he reached the age where he could get a driver’s license, Osterhoudt was in the labor of chemotherapy and radiation to treat a diagnosis of Ewing’s sarcoma: a rare cancer that develops in the bones and attacks soft tissue in the body. Osterhoudt, then a healthy 15-year-old who played baseball, basketball and football, suffered from chronic back pain that he assumed was just the result of training and playing for various high school sports teams. The pain was actually from a tumor doctors found on his ribs; it turned out to be malignant.

During the first few months of 2022, Osterhoudt traveled back and forth – mostly accompanied by his mother, Ann Marie Tardi-Osterhoudt, a chiropractor – to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, where he received powerful doses of chemotherapy that made him very ill. He also underwent surgery to remove the tumor, which also involved removing two of his ribs.

As Zach recovered from treatment, his father Reggie began looking for trucks for his son to drive. However, he soon discovered that even a used truck was quite expensive. “At my work, at a radio station, there was an old 2003 Ford F250 that had been sitting there for years. My boss said it would be free if I could get it out of there, so I had a friend come and tow it to our house,” Reggie said.

Zach began working on the truck constantly, putting all the money he could earn into repairs. “He worked on it nonstop while he was recovering from cancer,” his father said. “He’s the kind of kid that needs to be outside, working with his hands, doing things.”

During that time, Osterhoudt was granted a “wish” by Make-a-Wish Hudson Valley. “We were so excited for him,” said Debbie Flynn, who sits on the board with her sister-in-law, Cathy Sifre, volunteers and raises money for the nonprofit that grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses. “He is such a kind, respectful young man who comes from a wonderful family and has been through a lot.” “His wish was to have his truck painted because he felt it was a ‘rust bucket,'” Sifre added.

The Sifre family stopped by Smitty’s Auto Body Shop in New Paltz and spoke with the owner, Kip Ruger, who said he would be happy to help paint the truck. “The truck needed a lot more than just a new coat of paint,” Ruger noted. So Ruger, along with the guys who worked in his shop, searched everywhere for a new bed, which they found in Connecticut. Then they had to find a bumper, doors, a hood, a grille, shocks, a roof… “It needed almost everything,” Ruger explained.

Finding replacement parts for a 2003 Ford truck was just one of the hurdles Ruger and the staff in the office had to overcome. After finding all the parts to replace, the guys in the office started sanding the edges of the used doors and smoothing out any chipped areas and dents so the body was ready for the paint booth. “He wanted the truck painted Ebony Black, a classic standard color,” said Scott Smolenski, a veteran painter at Smitty’s. “It’s a great feeling to work on something this young man will appreciate, especially after everything he’s been through.”

Osterhoudt dropped his truck off to be painted, but little did he know that shortly after he left the shop, the crew would immediately begin work removing all the old, rusted parts and rebuilding the truck from the ground up. Frank Kouhout, who has worked as a body builder at Smitty’s for nearly 30 years, couldn’t wait to start working on this pro bono project. “I want to help make this truck as perfect as possible,” he said. “For me, this is an opportunity to give back something I could never repay. When my grandson was born, he had Hirschsprung Syndrome, which required seven different surgeries. I am so grateful to all the people who supported us. The doctors were incredible and I now have a healthy grandson. It’s something you don’t forget and this gives me the chance to help someone else’s son and grandson.”

Momentum continued to build as the truck was completely rebuilt. Osterhoudt’s family and friends were told the date and time when he would find out. On a hot day last week, the Sifres attached ribbons and bows to the truck and people from Highland, New Paltz and Kingston gathered to celebrate the young man’s wish.

“The truck looks beautiful, but as his grandmother, I’m just so glad he has something safe to drive to Cortland and back,” Dona Saulpaugh said. “I was so worried about him driving that old truck there, especially in the winter.” His grandmother, who is a nurse, praised Zach’s mother, Anne Marie, for “keeping his treatment so well under control. There were so many different medications and side effects that she had to understand, and she had to drive him to Sloan over and over. He was very, very sick. But now his treatment is complete and his scans and lung x-rays are normal. But it’s always in the back of my mind.”

As she watched her grandson remodel his truck, she said, “He really deserves it. He just turned 18 and is extremely respectful and polite. He just needs to make sure he gets a stepladder so his girlfriend can get in the truck.”

Anne Marie Osterhoudt beamed as she saw the truck and all of Zach’s loved ones, the Make-a-Wish team and the Smitty crew all gathered in the back parking lot waiting for Zach to walk through the doors so they could surprise him. “Zach is just a very responsible young man. He works hard and is so good-natured, and this is going to mean so much to him. I’m grateful to everyone who participated.”

She said it was a scary long road, from the shock of the diagnosis to the surgery and then chemotherapy and radiation. “But right now he’s doing wonderful. He definitely finds it hard to sit for too long because he had his ribs removed.” Asked how she got through all the driving and overnight stays at Sloan Kettering and seeing her boy so sick, she said she had a friend whose daughter had cancer who helped her through both the treatment and the emotional rollercoaster. “The other moms I met at Sloan were wonderful too. We were a close group who supported each other.”

The crowd behind Smitty’s Body Shop grew, and soon all of Zach’s friends and family were there, his girlfriend, and the people who had donated to the Make-a-Wish Hudson Valley branch. New Paltz Mayor Tim Rogers was there, along with friends of the Sifres. Everyone fell silent when they learned that the young beneficiary had entered the front office and was heading to the back, ostensibly to check out his new paint job.

When the back garage door opened and Osterhoudt saw his completely refurbished Ford truck with a glossy black paint job and balloons, a shimmering silver grille and a new bed, his smile could have lit up every light in Ulster County. “This means so much to me,” he said. “I started a landscaping business with my friend and we have to haul rocks and equipment and that became a challenge with my old truck. I’m so surprised and happy and grateful.”

As Osterhoudt looked at his new used truck with all the bells and whistles that Smitty’s and the Make-a-Wish donors brought, he spoke to and thanked each and every person who had been with him along the way. He said he was thrilled to have a solid truck for college and he wants to be a physical education teacher. “I always loved sports as a kid and enjoyed teaching my younger brother and sister different sports and games. I think it would be a great career to introduce other kids to sports and exercise.”

Although he had to stop playing basketball after his cancer, Osterhoudt finished his senior year playing baseball and football. “Six weeks after my surgery, I started doing all kinds of rehab exercises because I really wanted to get my strength and endurance back.” He said he really leaned on “my parents, my family, my friends and my girlfriend Regan during that time. It was hard, but they helped me talk about it and that really kept me going.”

Now Osterhoudt will head off to college in style: in a completely rebuilt and repainted 2003 Ford truck, with lots of love and a dream of becoming a physical education teacher to ensure the next generation stays as healthy, fit and passionate about sports as he is.