Ever since he was a young boy, Zach Osterhoudt has been fascinated by trucks. “I’m not sure why,” said the 17-year-old, who recently graduated from Highland High School and is now slated to start college at SUNY Cortland this fall. “Growing up, my uncles had trucks. Many of my friends and neighbors had trucks and tractors, and I just loved them.”
By the time he had reached the age when he could get a driver’s permit and license, Osterhoudt was in the throes of chemotherapy and radiation to treat a diagnosis of Ewing’s sarcoma: a rare cancer that develops in the bones and attacks soft tissue within the body. A then-healthy 15-year-old who played baseball, basketball and soccer, Osterhoudt was experiencing chronic back pain, which he assumed was just the result of training and playing for various high school sports teams. The pain actually stemmed from a tumor that doctors found on his ribs; it turned out to be malignant.
Throughout the early months of 2022, Osterhoudt — usually accompanied by his mother Ann Marie Tardi-Osterhoudt, who is a chiropractor — traveled back and forth to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, where he received heavy doses of chemotherapy that left him very ill. He also underwent surgery to remove the tumor, which also took out two of his ribs.
As Zach began to recover from the treatment, his father Reggie began looking around for trucks that his son might be able to drive, but soon realized that the pricetag on even a used truck was quite hefty. “There was an old Ford F250 2003 truck where I work, at a radio station, that had been sitting there for years. My boss said it was free if I could get it out of there, so I had friend come and tow it to our house,” Reggie recounted.
Zach began to work on the truck constantly and put whatever money he could make into repairs. “He worked on it nonstop when he was recovering from the cancer,” said his dad. “He’s the kind of kid whoneeds to be outdoors, working with his hands, doing things.”
During this time, Osterhoudt had been granted a “wish” by Make-a-Wish Hudson Valley. “We were so taken by him,” said Debbie Flynn, who, along with her sister-in-law Cathy Sifre, are on the board of directors, volunteer and fundraise for the not-for-profit organization that grants wishes to children who have a life-threatening illness. “He’s such a kind, respectful young man who comes from a wonderful family, and he’d been through a lot.” “His wish was to get his truck painted because he felt like it was a ‘rust bucket,’” added Sifre.
The Sifre family stopped by Smitty’s Auto Body Shop in New Paltz and talked with the owner, Kip Ruger, who said he’d be happy to help get the truck painted. “The truck needed a lot more than a paint job,” Ruger noted. So, along with the guys who work in his shop, Ruger began to search high and low for a new truck bed, which they found in Connecticut. Then they had to find a bumper, doors, hood, grill, shocks, roof… “It needed almost everything,” Ruger explained.
Finding parts for a 2003 Ford truck was just one of the hurdles that Ruger and the employees in the front office faced. Once they were able to track down all of the parts that needed replacing, the guys in the back began to sand the edges of the used doors and smooth out any chipped areas and dents, so that the body could be ready for the paint booth. “He wanted the truck to be painted Ebony Black, which is a standard, classic color,” said Scott Smolenski, a veteran painter for Smitty’s. “It feels great to be working on something that this young man is going to appreciate, especially after everything he’s been through.”
Osterhoudt dropped off his truck to be painted, but little did he know that moments after he left the shop, the crew would immediately go to work pulling off all of the old rusted-out parts to rebuild the truck from the bottom up. Frank Kouhout, who has been a body man at Smitty’s for almost 30 years, couldn’t wait to get to work on the pro bono project. “I want to help make this truck as perfect as I can,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for me to pay back something that I could never pay back. When my grandson was born, he had Hirschsprung syndrome that required seven different surgeries. I’m so grateful to all of the people whocame out to help support us. The doctors were incredible, and I have a healthy grandson now. You don’t forget something like that, and this gives me a chance to help someone else’s son and grandson.”
The momentum kept building as the truck was being completely remodeled. Osterhoudt’s family and friends were told about the date and time it would be revealed to him. On a hot day last week, the Sifres put ribbons and bows on the truck, and people gathered from Highland, New Paltz and Kingston to help celebrate this young man’s wish.
“The truck looks beautiful, but as his grandmother, I’m just so happy that he has something safe to drive up and back to Cortland in,” said Dona Saulpaugh. “I was so worried about him taking that old truck up there, especially in the winters.” His grandmother, who is a nurse, praised Zach’s mother Anne Marie for “being so on top of his treatment. There were so many different medications and side effects that she had to understand, and she had to go back and forth to Sloan with him. He was very, very sick. But now, his treatment is done, and his scans and lung x-rays have been clear. But it’s always in the back of your mind.”
In terms of seeing her grandson have his truck rebuilt, she said, “He’s so deserving. He just turned 18 and is extremely respectful and courteous, and he’s just going to have to make sure he gets a stepladder for his girlfriend to be able to get up in that truck.”
Anne Marie Osterhoudt was beaming when she saw the truck and all of Zach’s loved ones, the Make-a-Wish team and the Smitty’s crew all gathered together in the back parking lot waiting for Zach to come 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 took part in this.”
She said that it had been a scary long haul from the shock of the diagnosis to the surgery and then the chemotherapy and radiation treatment. “But right now he’s doing wonderfully. It’s definitely hard for him to sit for too long of a time because of where his ribs were taken out.” When asked how she got through all of the trips and overnights to Sloan Kettering and seeing her boy so sick, she said that she had a friend whose daughter had cancer who helped her navigate both the treatment and the emotional rollercoaster of the process. “The other mothers I met at Sloan were also wonderful. We had a tight group who supported each other.”
The crowd behind Smitty’s Body Shop began to grow, and soon there were all of Zach’s friends and family, his girlfriend and people who had helped donate to the Make-a-Wish Hudson Valley chapter. New Paltz Mayor Tim Rogers was there, along with friends of the Sifres. A hush came over everyone as they learned that the young beneficiary had entered the front office and was headed out back, ostensibly to see his new paint job.
When the back garage door opened and Osterhoudt saw his completely renovated Ford truck with a shiny black coat of paint and balloons, a shimmering silver grille and a new truck bed, his smile could have charged up every light in Ulster County. “This means so much to me,” he said. “I’ve started a landscaping business with my friend and we need to haul rocks and equipment, and it was getting challenging in my old truck. I’m so surprised and happy and grateful.”
As Osterhoudt looked at his new used truck, with all of the bells and whistles that Smitty’s and the Make-a-Wish donors had helped to put on it, he talked to and thanked every single person who had been part of this journey. He said he was thrilled to have a solid truck to take to college, and that he was going to school to become a physical education teacher. “I always loved PE as a kid and enjoyed teaching my younger brother and sister how to play different sports and games, and I think it would be a great career to help get other kids excited about sports and exercise.”
While he did have to stop playing basketball after his recovery from cancer, Osterhoudt finished out his senior year playing baseball and soccer. “Six weeks after my surgery I started trying to do whatever rehab exercises I could, because I wanted to get my strength and stamina back so badly.” He said that he really leaned on “my parents and family and friends and my girlfriend Regan during that time. It was hard, but they helped me talk through it, and that is really what kept me going.”
Now Osterhoudt will be going off to college in style with a completely rebuilt and newly painted 2003 Ford truck, a lot of love and a dream of becoming a PE teacher to keep the next generation as healthy and fit and excited about sports as he was.
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