On 7th birthday, Hilton Head boy asks for donations for sick classmate

Aldo Bagnulo didn’t ask for gifts for his seventh birthday.

No Legos, no bike, no superhero costume as on birthdays’ past.

This year, Aldo asked for money to fight cancer – and not his own.

Alex Arrieta, a boy at Aldo’s school - Hilton Head Island School for Creative Arts - was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in February 2015. Chelsea Clinton recently visited Alex at MUSC Children’s hospital, where he’s been undergoing treatment since late January.

Brandon Arrieta, Alex’s father, described his son’s condition as “fragile” Tuesday afternoon. Alex will need a bone marrow transplant to survive. And while there’s a donor for him, it’s unclear whether Alex be strong enough to undergo the procedure.

“He needs a lot of people praying for him right now,” his father said. “He’s at a very difficult period.”

Aldo has never met Alex. He saw Alex at the pep rally the school held for him, Aldo said.

Aldo collected about $150 at his birthday party over the weekend to give to his fellow student.

“I hope Alex gets better,” Aldo said Tuesday.

The donation wasn’t Aldo’s idea, per se – his mother came up with the plan. Amber Bagnulo pitched it to her son. He bought in.

“I approached him by saying, ‘At your birthday party, I think it would be a great idea if, in lieu of gifts, you asked your friends to donate to Alex,’” Amber Bagnulo said. “‘You remember the story about Alex?’”

Aldo remembered.

“‘Wouldn’t it be great to donate to someone who is sick, who might need things more than you?’” she asked her son.

Mother and son found a glass jar and wrote Alex’s name on it. They took the jar to Aldo’s party, held Saturday at Station 300, an arcade in Bluffton. There was laser tag and a ball pit, there were chocolate chip cookies.

And there were dollar bills stuffed into the jar.

“He enjoyed it, liked counting (the money) at the end,” Aldo’s mom said. “He was proud.”

The Bagnulos hope to hold philanthropic birthday parties for Aldo and his two younger brothers in the future.

Amber Bagnulo, a Peace Corps alum, and her husband Tony, an Army veteran, want to instill a sense of service in their kids. Aldo’s birthday party was the couple’s trial run.

“We call Aldo our gentle giant,” his mom said. “He’s a very kindhearted, sweet boy. Very good in school. He takes responsibility for his brothers.”

“I use him a lot in my daily life to ... teach the other two.”

This story was originally published March 8, 2016 at 11:07 AM with the headline "On 7th birthday, Hilton Head boy asks for donations for sick classmate."