Living with cerebral palsy is an unimaginable hardship that some people have to go through. But find out how this hardware store employee helped a man’s son with cerebral palsy with just a small act of kindness.
Jessica Getty and her husband Mark went to a Lowe’s home improvement warehouse in Brookhaven, Pennsylvania, to buy materials to help their 5-year-old son Will make a significant leap in his development. They were looking to buy PVC pipes to build parallel bars so he could learn to walk.
How did the story start?
For context, their son was just 5 years old and had quadriplegic spastic cerebral palsy. Will was born prematurely at 23 weeks old, making it difficult to control his muscles. Will struggled with holding his arms, legs, trunk, and face, making walking harder. Because of this, Jessica and Mark spent most of their time looking for a solution to help their prematurely born son.
What Mark and Jessica Getty hoped to accomplish
The parents went to Lowe’s for PVC pipes to build parallel bars to help Will learn how to walk. They decided to approach Dave Urban, an employee of the hardware store, to ask for help.
Dave realized the parents would need more pieces to accomplish what Mark and Jessica Getty wanted with Will. Dave said that he thought that Mark and Jessica just wanted to buy some materials until he saw Will, which was when he realized what they were trying to do. Once he saw Will, he said he knew what they were building and wanted to help.
Dave Urban’s parallel bar device
Dave Urban decided to take 30 minutes to help fit the pipes together for the project and created a parallel bar device. The device reportedly includes the specifications that the Gettys’ needed for Will. Although simple, this act of kindness resulted in a proper device that could help Will learn to walk, which he’s struggled to do all his life.
How the device helped Will
Will finally got out of his chair to try the device out. It was a success, and as he tested the bars in the PVC pipe aisle, it was clear that Will was happy. Dave Urban saw what he had done and how he had been able to help Will learn how to walk. Urban shared that he felt a “sense of pride” and was emotionally overcome when he saw the boy with cerebral palsy learning to walk.
How to help people with special needs
While Dave Urban was fortunate enough to know precisely what Will needs, sometimes, there isn’t always a simple solution for people with special needs. Helping someone with special needs is often difficult since some have specific needs and requirements. However, one universal thing that can be done to at least help a little is being kind.
While Dave Urban was only being kind and exerting a little more effort to help them set up a device to help Will walk, his actions significantly affected the boy with cerebral palsy learning how to walk. If everyone can be kind to one another and go the little extra mile, who knows how many people could benefit from the small acts of kindness?
The bottom line
A little act of kindness goes a long way. At the same time, Mark and Jessica Getty were lucky to have Dave Urban help them set up the parallel bar device. This simple act happened because the Lowe’s hardware employee went the extra step to ensure their device worked. The Gettys appreciated how a stranger stepped up to help them.
