If you have a friend or family member with autism, you’ll know it’s common for them to have a highly focused level of interest on a specific topic.
This could be related to anything from animals to drawing, trains to countries. If you think you’re pretty knowledgeable on a subject, ask a person with autism to tell you about their special interest – they’ll blow you away!
One little boy in Fort Wayne, IN, has his own specific autistic interest: electronics.
According to his mom, Erika, Parker is absolutely obsessed with anything that involves electronics, including TVs, DVDs and computers.
This makes a trip to his local Best Buy store an absolute dream come true. Who needs Disney World?
Parker loves Best Buy so much that his mom wanted to get him a special Best Buy themed costume for Halloween.
She contacted her local store to see if they could help with her request, knowing that it was a little random. It’s probably not common for people to get in touch asking to buy part of the Best Buy uniform, after all!
Erika didn’t have huge aspirations – she just wanted Parker to have his very own Best Buy shirt.
So she never could have expected the overwhelmingly generous response she received…
Sharing her story on Facebook, Erika wrote:
“Words cannot express my appreciation for Best Buy and its Fort Wayne store! Parker’s goal is to someday work at Best Buy.”
“I emailed Best Buy asking to buy a shirt for Halloween a couple months back, and they emailed me back saying they would love to make a night of it!”
Erika explained that when she and Parker arrived at the store, staff members gave him his own personal shirt and name tag, then let him pick out whatever he wanted.
He was even allowed to scan everything “because he was the worker”.
According to Erika, Christmas came early for her son, and she wrote that they were both “forever grateful” to the Best Buy employees who helped that night.
Alongside Erika’s post are photos and videos of the staff in question – Israel Molinar, Jennifer Bau, and Tristan Wilkinson – helping Parker to choose his goodies and even carrying his basket for him.
In the videos, Parker is clearly excited, grinning at the camera and jumping around.
At one point, he can be heard saying that he can’t wait to tell his teacher about all the “cool stuff” he’s picked up – bless!
The kindness of the Best Buy employees touched the hearts of Erika’s friends, who shared the post across Facebook. It didn’t take long until the post had gone viral, with 19k shares and 11k reactions.
Hundreds of people commented to give their thanks to the amazing staff at Best Buy.
One person wrote:
“You guys are all Rockstars! The joy on that boys face should make you guys feel like the best people in the world. We need millions more like you!”
Someone else wrote:
“What a wonderful experience for Parker and a beautiful caring thing for the store and it’s [sic] employees to take part in. We need more of these stories.”
We couldn’t agree more! Positive news like this is so important to hear in the midst of the chaos in the world right now.
If you love this story as much as us, you have to check out Erika’s full Facebook post. Here’s hoping these special employees were formally recognized for their hard work!
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