Meet the Make-a-Wish kid: Cooper Logan

Shawn Logan

Cooper Logan is the Make-a-Wish kid for the 2018-19 school year.

When he’s not playing basketball, Cooper is working on his YouTube channel. Hanging With Coop has been a hit with Cooper’s friends and family. At 74 subscribers in two and a half years, the channel is successful and looking to grow. “I usually do football picks or maybe even a Nerf challenge. I’ve done that before with my brother. I’m thinking of doing a March Madness or an NBA thing this year,” said the young YouTube star.

“I’ve also done Kawasaki disease ones. Those have probably been my top picks. I try to stick to that and not lose subscribers because you know, when you don’t post a lot you kind of lose that,” advised Cooper.

At age three, Cooper was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease, a disease that is caused by inflammation in the blood vessels. There is a critical ten-day window in which it can be treated more successfully, but Cooper, having not caught it in the first ten days, now has a coronary aneurysm. On top of that, he also has stage three kidney failure.

When asked about the hardest part, Cooper explained, “I just try to keep it positive. I mean, sometimes in the morning I’m like ‘Man, I don’t want to take my medicine’, because I’ve done it a ton. I want to be a normal person just going and eating their breakfast. I’m not always the most positive person in the world. Sometimes I’m negative, and maybe sometimes I’m really negative because it’s hard because when you have to do it every single day, you get annoyed of it.”

Having struggled with Kawasaki disease for six years, the now nine-year-old Cooper understands the severity of his condition. “My mom and my dad told me I would have to go through surgery soon. They said I can fight through it and stuff won’t be bad. I just hope that something bad doesn’t happen.”

Despite the diagnosis, Cooper and his family are staying positive and using their story to help others. Shawn and Meredith Logan have formed a nonprofit called Kawasaki Kids that works to raise money for the cure and treatment of children with Kawasaki disease. Thus far, the foundation has saved nineteen lives. Cooper’s story is the inspiration behind it and therefore he plays a large role. “My dad, at golf tournaments, he introduces me a lot and he runs these fundraisers so we can get money for the foundation and that goes all to the Children’s Hospital,” Cooper said.

Cooper also runs a movement on his own, making backpacks for kids in hospitals that have been diagnosed with Kawasaki disease. He explained, “We put some fun stuff in there like coffee mugs for the adults, newspapers for the adults, and we put a lot of toys and stuffed animals and blankets in the backpacks and we send that to the hospital. My dad gets some videos from the people and it’s fun seeing the expressions of their faces…I think it’s really cool that we get to help other people out and that they don’t have to sit in the hospital just playing games all day and that they can actually have something else to do instead of having that boring part like I did.”

Cooper’s kind heart shows through in everything he does. “In school today,” he said, “somebody fell down when I was playing basketball in the middle of a game and I just went and helped them up. I think that was very nice of me because more than likely, my friends don’t usually do that.”

Cooper also talked about his closest friend. “Isaac is one of my best friends because I’ve known him since I was a kid. He’s been around me since kindergarten and now he’s still here in fourth grade,” explained Cooper.

When it is not recess, Cooper enjoys school, saying, “My favorite classes are maybe specials. I definitely like doing homeroom because I’m with my teacher and she can help me out more in math when it’s a little harder because some teachers are mean—well not like mean mean but, you know.”

As far as his wish, Cooper has chosen Disney World. “I just knew that I wouldn’t get the time to be there. I decided to make a wish and make it that because I’ve always wanted to go there when I can. I could have had many other choices but the one that I wanted to pick was that. I thought that was pretty cool that you get to go to a big place with a lot of people and you might meet one of your friends. You never know,” pondered Cooper, adding, “I just want to enjoy it with my family.”

Cooper identified his family as the most important thing in his life, saying, “They’ve helped me out through my life and that I have this Kawasaki disease since I was three they’ve kind of pushed me through it and made it a little better for me. They’ve just been a good support.”

At Disney, Cooper is excited “to go to the gaming center and seeing what that’s like and the cool ball that changes color at night. And Jedi training. That’ll be cool.”

Moving forward, Cooper is excited about Make-a-Wish Week at Fossil, “especially that cat show thing that you show off your cat. That’s going to be fun to go to and support whatever they’re doing there. I hope it’s fun!” Fossil will be hosting a series of events as follows: Tuesday will be the Prom Fashion Show from 7 to 8 p.m.; Wednesday, Fossil will host Trivia Night from 6 to 8 p.m.; Thursday there will be a laser tag tournament at Loveland Laser Tag from 5 to 9 p.m.; and Friday will be the Sadie Hawkins Dance from 7 to 9 p.m.. Students are encouraged to attend in order to raise money to grant Cooper’s wish. For more information, click here.

Lastly, when asked for a final comment, Cooper said, “I need more subscribers. It’s ‘Hanging with Coop’ and it’s the one with the Seahawks head.” Click here to subscribe.