An Iowa teenager is being praised for skipping her own prom to attend a dance with a boy she recently met at the airport, a boy with cerebral palsy.
Brittany Klocke, a senior at Kuemper Catholic High School, met Andrew Shumway, 14, at the Orlando International Airport in February, where they were stranded for nearly a day together after their flights to Minnesota were canceled.
“I started talking to him and he started telling all these jokes,” Brittany told ABC News. “I met his mom and dad. I talked to Andrew pretty much all day long.”
Although Andrew went to a school in Wisconsin—a 5-hour drive from where Brittany lived—she didn’t hesitate to say “yes” when Andrew asked her to go to his dance.
“My little brother Cayden, he has autism, so special needs came up and living with someone that needs a little more attention,” Brittany said. “His mom brought it up that the special needs dance was in their community and Andrew asked, ‘Will you go with me?’”
Last Saturday, Brittany and her mother drove the 5 hours from Iowa to Wisconsin, where Andrew was waiting for her with a white rose corsage.
“My heart was so overwhelmed and touched,” said Lauri, Andrew’s mom. “[Andrew] was so happy. He is a people-person. He loves to introduce people, so he was very excited to introduce her to the special needs staff, the classmates. He‘d say, ’This is Brittany from the airport.'...My son will never forget this.”
After the dance, the two went out for ice cream, where Andrew asked Brittany to go to next year’s dance with him.
