Lindsey Larsen sent out a bunch of invitations for her son’s 9th birthday party, and he was really looking forward to celebrating with his friends. But, sadly, only one person responded. Why, Lindsey wondered. Didn’t they like her son? Did it have something to do with him being autistic.
Her son, Christian, was beaming with excitement, awaiting his big day and his big party. But, obviously, his mom was extremely worried. She remembered how when she was a child, others seemed to shy away from special needs children. She remembered that well because one of those special needs children was her brother.
Says Lindsey: “I remember growing up and watching my brother ride on the special needs bus. I remember being young in elementary school and standing up for him and defending other special needs children.”
So because only one person responded to the birthday invitation, Lindsey went to social media, and poured her heart out about it. When she did, many gave positive comments, and Lindsey’s message also reached Dan Holtry, the football coach at Nampa High School in Idaho. When he told his players about Christian and his birthday party, the players were all for doing something about it. So they did.
We’ve never done a class party for Christian before. There was one year in preschool where a couple girls from his class…
Posted by Lindsay Barrus Larsen on Friday, 31 May 2019
A friend and a few children from the neighborhood were at Christian’s party. Then, the entire football team at Nampa showed up. And when they did, they were chanting his name. Can you imagine a little boy’s excitement when a group of big football players chants his name? It was huge. It meant the world to him.
Thank you Blythe for making this happen!
Posted by Lindsay Barrus Larsen on Tuesday, 4 June 2019
It was an amazing act of kindness from strangers for a little boy, whose birthday would have passed mostly unnoticed without their genuine need to help out.
Says Lindsey: “I know that Christian felt amazed and blessed by the turnout. He talked about it for days.”
And that’s just the way it should be for any youngster’s birthday.
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