Manager for the day: Sports card store honours loyal teen customer battling cancer

Wayne Wagner helped fulfill a wish for Everett Misenas by making him a first-ever honourary manager for the re-opening of Wayne's Sports Cards and Collectibles.

A teenaged boy who’s been battling cancer for the better part of 10 years has officially fulfilled his wish of owning a sports card store, and he even has his own trading card to commemorate the occasion.

Everett Misenas was four when doctors first discovered his brain tumour. He’s undergone multiple treatments between then and now as a 13-year-old. His mother Kyla said he’s currently on a clinical trial for the cancer.

“We’re hopeful that this will finally kind of be the end (of treatments) for him, but we don’t know,” she told CTV News Edmonton on Saturday. “So this time is for him to just have distractions and opportunities to just not think about that.”

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And what better distraction, the family thought, for a die-hard hockey fan, player and collector like Everett, than the grand re-opening of Wayne’s Sports Cards and Collectibles.

Wayne’s was only recently renovated when owner Wayne Wagner decided it was time to fulfill Everett’s wish of owning a hobby shop of his own.

“We’ve been kind of looking at doing this for about six years now. We just never had the opportunity,” he said at the re-opening on Saturday. “We’re absolutely over the moon to have Everett here as our first-ever honorary store manager.”

The store celebrated 35 years and a renewed passion for collectibles, Wagner said, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, a gift for the first 150 customers and a cake. The person cutting the ribbon was Everett.

“I shop here often, and I asked them what it took to own a card store,” Everett said. “And they just said, you know, try it out.

“I just really like collecting cards. I’ve always wanted to own a business.”

The opportunity for the teen to try out owning a shop came from Upper Deck’s Heroic Inspirations, a trading card program that aims to honour people who have overcome adversity.

Through Upper Deck, there’s now an official Everett Misenas trading card, which was unveiled at Wayne’s Sports Cards during the opening.

Wagner was the one to nominate Everett as an honouree. On their website, Upper Deck describes the teen as “a staple in the collecting community in Edmonton.”

“Hockey cards have been really important to him over the years,” Everett’s mom explained. “He’s such a loving kid, but he’s also very strong, and he really looks out for other kids that are in a similar situation to him.”

Part of Everett’s relationship with Wayne’s shop came from the teen bringing trading cards to the hospital, which are donated to treasure chests for kids. His dream collectible, he said, is an Alex Ovechkin patch card.

“Everett is the oldest of three kids … he really takes care of them, and brings them to the store and shows, especially his little brother, about cards and players and stats,” his mom added.

Wayne’s Sports Card was packed with customers for the grand re-opening, and to see Everett himself – who was autographing his own trading card.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Galen McDougall