Through a combined effort from the Catch-A-Dream organization and Georgia-Pacific of Monticello, a young boy’s dream came true.

Hayden Johnson, of Salem, Ohio, flew down to Mississippi along with his parents, Sam and Julie, this past week to participate in his sponsored hunt. Hayden successfully killed a doe and a nine-point buck with a Remington 7 mm rifle.

“I loved it,” Hayden, 13, said of his first deer hunting experience. “I would recommend it to other kids who are sick.”

Hayden was diagnosed with a brain tumor at 14 months old. He has had a least two surgeries, one with the aid of Ben Carson, noted pediatric neurosurgeon.

Sam Johnson stated doctors think he was born with cancer.

“Everything seemed normal at first,” his father said.

He explained Hayden was taken to doctor after doctor with no sure answer from any of them. The infant was being fed supplements to increase his calorie intake to around 3,000 per day, and he was still losing weight. Hayden’s parents and doctors were confused.

“He was too little to tell you what was wrong with him,” Johnson said.

The Johnsons, including Hayden’s older sister Paige, spent eight months in and out of hospitals wondering and thinking the worst.

Finally the family found a doctor who had seen only one similar case to Hayden’s. An MRI revealed Hayden had a tumor in his brain that was pressing on his hypothalamus and pituitary gland. The pressure was discovered to have been causing his decrease in appetite.

Within a week, Hayden had his first surgery to relieve pressure and went through one year of chemotherapy afterwards to buy him more precious time.

In the spring of 2008, his second surgery took place at John Hopkins Hospital with leading neurosurgeon Ben Carson. After the surgery, a new technology of radiation therapy was performed on Hayden called proton radiation. The Massachusetts General Children’s Hospital used the cutting edge technology on Hayden along with the aid of Harvard Medical School.

As of now, Hayden’s tumor remains with him. Because of the mass’s location in the brain, there is no way to remove it without major damage to the area.

Hayden experiences some balance-control issues and a few other problems associated with the tumor, but none of which have stopped him from living his life to the fullest in every way. Hayden has wrestled alligators, swam with dolphins, caught and mounted a large tuna off of the Carolina coast along with other adventures.

Hayden has many hobbies and interests, but hunting is his most recent one. He loves all things camouflage and especially enjoys watching Duck Dynasty.

Along with a friend he referred to simply as Wilson, he had the opportunity and met the cast members of the show including Phil and Kay Robertson.

Sam Johnson explained Wilson, who Hayden attended with, has since passed away.

Of the Johnson’s trials and tears, Sam added he would not wish an experience like this on anyone else; he also would not have missed it for anything.

“It has taught us to appreciate the very best in people,” Sam said.

Georgia Pacific of Monticello and the Catch-a-Dream organization held a small ceremony in honor of Hayden complete with cake covered in camouflage Saturday, Jan. 17.

Brian Chisholm spoke on behalf of Catch-a-Dream and presented Hayden with the Bible and a plaque inscribed with the scripture Isaiah 40:30-31: “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

“We hope that this weekend Hayden has made a lot of new friends here at GP and memories to cherish forever,” Brent Collins, Georgia-Pacific vice-president and Monticello mill manager, said. “He and his family are now part of the lives of Georgia-Pacific Monticello’s family.”

The Johnson family voiced their appreciation for the project.

“We are overwhelmed with the generosity we’ve experienced,” Sam Johnson said. “It has met and exceeded all our expectations.”

“This experience has fulfilled a dream that Hayden probably wouldn’t have realized otherwise,” Julie Johnson added.

Catch-A-Dream is based out of Starkville but has roots back to Brookhaven through noted Mississippi outdoorsman, author and sculptor Bruce Brady. While battling cancer, Brady became deeply concerned that the world’s largest children’s wish-granting organization, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, established national policy that precludes granting a child a wish that involved hunting or use of “… firearms, hunting bows or other hunting or sport-shooting equipment.”

Brady envisioned a program that would fill this service gap and provide life-changing outdoor experiences for terminally ill children at a time when “….these children need to know that hope does, indeed, exist.”

Although Brady died before his vision was anything more than an idea, Catch-A-Dream was created by a small group of outdoorsmen who embraced the vision and created what quickly became a nationally-recognized foundation.

GP Monticello has hosted a Catch-A-Dream trip on an annual basis, allowing children and their family to stay on site and hunt or fish on 1,600 acres of the 2,200 acre Monticello containerboard property that are actively managed for wildlife and recognized by the Wildlife Habitat Council’s as a “Wildlife at Work” program.

While Georgia-Pacific is proud of its association with Catch-A-Dream, it is also a community event. In addition to hunting GP Monticello’s otherwise protected property, the family was treated to meals in local restaurants and Allen Morgan donated taxidermy services for the deer, as he has done for all the Catch- A-Dream hunts at Georgia-Pacific. The weekend culminated in a lunch at the GP Monticello Pavilion with food provided by the GP Monticello Catfish Cooking Team.