When Reese Dixon and her husband saw a video of a child with cerebral palsy riding a wheelchair in a skate park, they knew they had to give their son Atticus the same experience.
And so, after strapping him in tight, Atticus’ dad pushed his son around the skate park, giving him the kind of thrill that’s sadly uncommon for kids with cerebral palsy.
“Atti has cerebral palsy and doesn’t talk much,” his mother wrote on Facebook. “This was his first day at the skate park and it broke him wide open.”
On her Facebook page, Reese encouraged people to share the video because “we believe in making disability visible.” Now, having been shared more than 1.2 million times, the video has done just that.
“Atti is an extremely shy kid… seeing how many people were watching that video and cheering him on made such an amazing difference to him. He went to bed giggling. He was hugging and kissing me all night,” Reese said.
“I kept saying “Look at all these people who believe in you!” And as we put him to bed we went to read him stories, but last night? He read them to us. He gathered up his courage to try reading out loud. To risk sounding “funny” as he struggled to make the words with his mouth and to show us just what that sweet little brain could do. You all gave him faith in himself.”
Watch Atticus having the time of his life below:
To read more about Atticus, follow Reese Dixon on Facebook and check out her blog.