Story Summary He now plays wheelchair sports, appears on television and attends college. He embodies the hope and confidence families and children find at Shriners Hospitals for Children.

You should expect us to do great things, too,” says 19-year-old TV spokesperson and budding sports broadcaster Alec Cabacungan.

Alec, a patient of Shriners Hospitals for Children - Chicago, has become a popular television star, been interviewed on numerous national news and talk shows, and has captured the hearts of many with his adorable smile and charming personality. Alec lives in the suburbs of Chicago, and is quite the active teenager.

On National Superhero Day 2023, the Baskin-Robbins Joy in Childhood Foundation surprised and celebrated Sebastian, a patient and local superhero at Shriners Children's Southern California, as its newest Pint-Sized Hero! Sebastian is a 14-year-old who was diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfecta when he was an infant.

Alec, a patient of Shriners Hospitals for Children - Chicago, has become a popular television star and has captured the hearts of many with his adorable smile and charming personality. The Filipino American lives in the suburbs of Chicago, and is quite the active teenager.

Shriners have stepped forward in recent years to complain about improprieties at some of the 191 local temples affiliated with the Shrine, including the commingling of charitable and noncharitable assets and the disappearance of money raised for the hospitals.

"It'll be with me for my life. I'll live with it until I die." That's what brought Cabacungan to Shriners in the first place – a rare genetic disorder called Osteogenesis Imperfecta, better known as brittle bone disease. His parents, Alma and Gill, got the news before he was born.

Despite its Arabic theme, the Shrine is in no way connected to Islam. It is a men's fraternity rather than a religion or religious group. Its only religious requirement is indirect: all Shriners must be Masons, and petitioners to Freemasonry must profess a belief in a Supreme Being.

American Shriners International, formally known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (AAONMS), is an American Masonic society established in 1870 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida.

Americanized form of German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) Schreiner .

Notable American Shriners include actors Mel Blanc, John Wayne, Ernest Borgnine, Roy Rogers, and Supreme Court justice Earl Warren, Gen.

The Founding of the Fraternity Fleming, M.D., and William J. “Billy” Florence, a well-known actor, founded Shriners International in 1872. Legend has it that Florence was inspired while attending an Arabian-themed party in Marseilles, France, during a time when the mystique of the near East was fashionable worldwide.