JACKSONVILLE, Fla \u2013 Ten years ago, Riley Ruppert Richendollar arrived at Dream Day as a child facing a frightening diagnosis.<\/p>\n
He was just 7 years old when doctors found an inoperable brain tumor deep in his brain. Surgery was too risky, so Riley\u2019s life became filled with chemotherapy, MRIs and constant doctor visits.<\/p>\n
Riley’s Return (News4JAX)<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery Friday I was going in for chemotherapy,\u201d Riley said. \u201cI had to do that for 52 weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
He remembers being scared and confused.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember asking my dad why it was happening to me and not one of my other friends,\u201d Riley said.<\/p>\n
But Dream Day gave him a break from all of that.<\/p>\n
He remembers superheroes, NFL players, giant games, candy and the chance to simply feel like a kid.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was excitement and joy and happiness,\u201d Riley said. \u201cIt was a break.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, 10 years later, Riley is back at Dream Day \u2014 but in a very different role.<\/p>\n
The same child who once received the magic is now helping create it.<\/p>\n
Riley started volunteering for this year\u2019s Dream Day just days before landing a two-week job with Event Technologies, the company helping produce the event.<\/p>\n
For him, it is more than a summer job. It is a full-circle moment.<\/p>\n
Riley recently graduated high school and is headed to college in Orlando to study live event production.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the audience reaction,\u201d Riley said. \u201cThat\u2019s my favorite part.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said being behind the scenes has made him appreciate what Dream Day means for children and families facing serious medical challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means everything,\u201d Riley said. \u201cIt\u2019s a break. It is an escape from the realities of treatment, doctors appointments, scariness and fear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, Riley\u2019s tumor is stable. He only needs monitoring every two years.<\/p>\n
And the little boy who once came to Dream Day looking for hope is now helping give that same feeling to someone else.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla \u2013 Ten years ago, Riley Ruppert Richendollar arrived at Dream Day as a child facing a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[131250,116,118,117,5436],"class_list":["post-320662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-dream-day","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-morning-show"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}