Shoppers looking for breakfast cereal might soon encounter a familiar face on one of the boxes in their local supermarket.
PLB Sports & Entertainment recently released the third edition of Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen’s “Josh’s Jaqs,” a portion of which benefits the Oishei Children’s Hospital with each box sold. On the back of the box sits a photo from a visit Allen made to the hospital, when he met with 11-year-old Colt Matz shortly before the Portville youngster’s bone marrow transplant to fight his leukemia.
Many months later, Colt is back home and hoping to get back to school at some point this fall, making regular trips to Roswell Park to check on his blood. On a recent drive to Buffalo, the Matz family stopped at Wegmans and found the cereal boxes on display.
Colt’s parents, Mike and Christina, knew of the plans to put his photo on the box but didn’t spread the word right away out of caution.
“Colt’s story and message has been out there obviously quite a bit through various media and organizations which has been so awesome,” Mike Matz said. “You have to sign a release form so they can use pictures. Chrissy and I knew this was going to happen but we didn’t tell anybody because what if it doesn’t happen, there’s a million things that could happen.
“We thought it was just a real privilege for him to have something like that happen. But then seeing it for the first time was a little surreal actually. It was (this) Monday and Colt had just a routine appointment up in Buffalo, so after the appointment we stopped at the Wegmans up there and right when you walked in they had this big display of it. I thought, man, this is pretty neat.”
A spokesperson for OCH noted, “The Children’s Hospital of Buffalo Foundation, which supports Oishei Children’s Hospital, relies on donations to support essential programs, care, equipment and technology. Initiatives like Josh’s Jaqs bring necessary donations that go directly to help kids like Colt. Having Josh Allen’s ongoing partnership since he came to Buffalo has brought an incredible amount of awareness and donations that has made a huge impact. Josh’s dedication and authenticity towards helping the kids in our community is unmatched.”
In a recent press release announcing the new edition of his cereal, Allen said, “It’s humbling to see a third edition of Josh’s Jaqs hit stores. I’m looking forward to seeing how much we can raise for the Oishei Children’s Hospital in year 3!”
ALLEN FIRST contacted Colt on his 11th birthday last September, sending a video message.
“At that point we thought, wow, this is unbelievable, Josh Allen sent you a video saying happy birthday, what an amazing opportunity,” Mike Matz said.
But an in-person visit followed just over a month later, when the hospital unveiled its Patricia Allen Pediatric Recovery Wing, named for the quarterback’s grandmother after Bills fans donated more than $1 million to the hospital in her memory in 2020. The visit came during a time when the Matzes needed a boost in their spirits, as Colt’s brother Jack had been staying home for weeks with his father to isolate in preparation for donating marrow for the transplant.
“We found out about a week or so before, ‘Hey, he’s coming up for the unveiling of the wing for his grandmother, but before that he wants to come up and meet with Colt.’” Mike Matz said. “So obviously I’m getting emotional just thinking about it. We were just floored, because that was also a time when, because Jack was the donor, we had to be extra cautious with him as far as his exposure to other people, his exposure to germs, getting sick, anything that could have caused him to get sick could have derailed the timeline.”