Birthday Parties
Kids look forward to their birthday parties. It is a time that they can get together with their friends, and celebrate a day that is just theirs. Because kids look forward to their birthday parties, it is heartbreaking when some of their friends are unable to attend. This is something that Lindsay Barrus Larson and Christian learned the hard way.
Christian Larsen
Christian Larsen and his family live in Meridian, Idaho. He has autism, which makes it hard for him to socialize with the other kids in his elementary school. His mother says that the social part is the hardest. She says that her son gets distracted because his mind is always going 100 miles per hour. This causes him to become distracted and suddenly wandering off. Lindsay says that even though her son became distracted often, he still wanted to be accepted by his peers.
Love Of Science
Lindsay says that Christian loves science. He loves to learn how things work and how they come to be. When his 9th birthday was approaching, Lindsay decided that she would throw him a science-themed birthday party, and she would invite all of his classmates. She knew that he would likely get distracted during the party, but it would mean the world to him to have his friends at his party, having fun together. Lindsay bought the invitations, wrote them out, and sent them to each of Christian’s classmates.
Major Disappointment
When Lindsay sent the invitations, she waited for the parents to respond. Sadly, none of the parents RSVP’d. Christian really wanted his classmates to come to his party, so he asked them in person. Many of the kids ignored him or said no, maybe because he’s an autistic boy. One friendly girl told Christian that she would attend his party. This broke Lindsay’s heart. Her son was really looking forward to his birthday party, and only one child from the class was coming. At first, Lindsay thought that the parents overlooked the invitations due to the end of the year chaos. It didn’t take long for her to realize that the other kids in the class were ignoring the invitations.
A Friend
Lindsay took to social media to post about her fears for her autistic boy. She didn’t want him to have just one friend at his party. Her friend, Blythe Ben-David saw Lindsay’s post. She was sad that she couldn’t attend the party because she was in Texas, but she was going to reach out to a friend who could give Christian the greatest birthday party, imaginable. She had a friend named Dan Holtry, who was the coach of the Nampa High School football team. And she knew Dan to be a great guy with a huge heart, and she was sure that he could help Lindsay and Christian.
Inviting the Players
When Blythe reached out to Dan, he immediately agreed to help. He asked his players if they would be willing to attend Christian’s party, and they all agreed immediately. Dan says that it didn’t take any convincing for the team. They all wanted to help. He tested each of the players, and everyone responded, “We’re in coach, we’re in.” Ben was so proud of his players for willing to take time out of their lives to make a young boy happy.
A Huge Success
The players had to travel 30 minutes to get to the party, and they didn’t just stay for a few minutes. All of the players stayed for the whole party, and they played games with Christian and his two classmates who attended the party. Christian thought that it was great that these cool, older kids wanted to attend his party. Lindsay says that the party was a success in more ways than one.
Interacting
Lindsay knew that Christian tended to wander away from a group while playing, but he didn’t do this at his party. He was helping to organize the games, and he wanted to be part of the action. Seeing her son having fun and being involved meant the world to Lindsay.
Going Viral
Lindsay posted photos of the birthday party and explained what the football team had done for Christian. It wasn’t long before the post went viral, and people from all over the world were liking, sharing, and commenting on her post. The team said that they didn’t go to the party to be on the news, they did it because they wanted to make Christian’s day as happy as possible.
Role Models
The members of the football team are role models for kids all over the world. These boys attended a birthday party for a child they didn’t know, just to make him happy. If there were more people in the world like these boys, doing this for an autistic boy, the world would be a better place. When classmates don’t show up at autistic boy’s 9th birthday party, a local football team steps in to make his day.
