SethWilson Gray is only 8 years old but already thinks he knows what he wants to be when he grows up.

The Vista Grande Elementary second-grader says he'd like to be a doctor or maybe an architect.

Being a doctor is closer to his heart. Indeed, his heart is the subject of this story.

SethWilson - yes, that's his real name, taken from his father's two names often run together when his mother would call for him in their Northeast Heights neighborhood - was born with a congenital heart defect of the aorta.

Although doctors told Seth and Kim Gray the heart murmur, considered a very minor birth defect, they detected when he was born at St. Vincent's Hospital in Santa Fe was normal and probably would disappear before he reached the age of 1, that didn't happen.

SethWilson has since undergone two operations, including one to replace the undeveloped aortic valve with that of a donor.

That surgery, known as the Ross Procedure, was done in California two years ago. Because donor valves don't grow with the recipient, SethWilson will need additional surgeries as he grows older. He winced as he told of the pain when the stitches had to be removed: "That was the worst; I screamed," he remembered.

Looking at him today, you'd never know he's undergone such trauma. Like most 8-year-olds, he likes watching 'Sponge Bob, Square Pants' and 'Full House,' collecting Pokemon cards - "I have a million of them," he says - playing soccer and football with his neighborhood buddies and, this spring, will be a first baseman for the Indians in the Cibola Little League's rookie division. In school, he likes math and science, which will help if he ends up a doctor or architect.

He played a key role in what the kids called 'Penny War" at Vista Grande earlier this month, where students, teachers and staff, plus students' parents, were asked to contribute pennies to the school: Half of the proceeds will go to the New Mexico Heart Association, the other half for a multi-purpose athletic field, "a place where kids can be healthy," SethWilson notes.

When the collection was counted, with silver coinage and dollar bills welcomed but counting against pennies collected, $3,500.02 was counted.

"After the Penny War, everyone thought the Heart Association was pretty cool," SethWilson said, happy to hear that helping the Heart Association and their buddy meant more than winning a pizza party, which had been offered to the classroom bringing in the most pennies.

Yesterday, while most kids were out playing, shopping with their parents, or staying inside to watch TV or play video games, SethWilson was participating in the American Heart Association's 'Heart Walk' at Albuquerque Academy.

The Heart Walk is nothing new for SethWilson, who's participated in the fund-raising event the last three years. The Heart Walk's purpose is to raise awareness of heart disease and its impact on families and to support the American Heart Association's involvement in research.

The $1,750.01 destined for the Heart Association from Vista Grande, along with Heart Walk proceeds, SethWilson said with a gleam in his eye, may someday "help find a cure for my heart disease and I won't have any more surgeries."