At first glance Henderson resident Joey Parrish looks like any average 11-year-old. He plays the drums and excels at baseball as a left-handed pitcher, but the silver "6" that hangs from a chain around his neck and the scar across his abdomen -- it looks like a Mercedes-Benz symbol without the circular border -- offer clues that his eleven years have been in no way average.

Nearly six years ago, in August 1999, Joey wore his good luck sock, an old Christmas sock with a snowman on it and a hole in the toe, into surgery at UCLA. At the time Joey was six years old -- six is his favorite number, as evidenced by the necklace -- and he was at UCLA for a life-saving liver transplant. After the operation, Joey and his parents, Kit and Chris Parrish, stayed at UCLA for three months while he recovered.