​The smile on 14-year-old Jonah Blick’s face was hard to miss as he met Florida basketball stars Rueben Chinyelu, Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh and even alum Walter Clayton.Behind the white ball filled with autographs was a smile that represented more than just a memorable weekend.For the teenager, his family, friends, the smile, the moment and the weekend represented a needed escape.Just three weeks earlier Jonah’s life had changed as he was diagnosed with a rare brain cancer.“It’s been pretty crazy,” Jonah told The Gainesville Sun when asked how he would describe the last few weeks.Two brain surgeriesIt all started when Jonah had a sudden seizure that lasted five minutes.Jonah, who had just started his freshman year of high school, it was the beginning of an unfortunate domino effect. A week later, the lifelong healthy child had an MRI that revealed two separate tumors on his brain, which were an aggressive, rare form of pediatric malignant brain cancer that required immediate surgery to remove a tumor causing the seizure.“In the last three weeks we have learned more about pediatric brain cancer than we ever want to know,” said Jonah’s dad, Adam Blick.But on the Friday before his trip to Gainesville, Jonah endured a nine-hour-long brain surgery in Boston.“When he was told he had to have a second surgery, he was like, ’Let’s do this,’” Adam said. “He’s amazing. He’s the bravest kid I know. He talks about it. He’s going to fight it. He goes and does the treatments and doesn’t complain.”The surgery was considered a success, and a day later Jonah only needed Tylenol for the pain.However, his medical journey is far from over as he’ll begin his first round of radiation as he waits to see a further prognosis of his brain tissue, which has been sent as far as Germany for testing as well as UF Health.But that’s the future.For now Jonah’s only focus is being a Gator fan.YES DAYJodi Sonenshine first met Randi Belkin, Jonah’s mom, in their sorority at Florida in the early 2000s. The duo has stayed lifelong friends, with Sonenshine eventually becoming Jonah’s godmother.Sonenshine and Randi had both worked for different charities in the past, but had always wanted to start their own. Sonenshine even worked for the Dream on 3 charity, which creates only sports-themed VIP experiences for children and young adults from five to 21 living dealing with life-altering conditions. While the experience was rewarding, it left her wanting to do more. “I loved the mission, but there was a lot of red tape,” Soneshine said. “I just wanted to start something where I could say yes to every kid.”That dream finally came true this May with the charity for YES DAY finally coming to life. Soneshine is the founder, and Randi has served on the board; however, neither of them could have ever guessed that Jonah would be one of their first YES Day participants.“We don’t look or talk about the statistics,” Sonenshine said. “We