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Berryhill students invite young boy with special needs to play football

Posted at 8:01 PM, Sep 25, 2019
and last updated 2019-09-26 00:29:59-04

BERRYHILL, Okla. — A simple, yet powerful act of kindness is spreading around the Berryhill community.

Berryhill beat Cushing 36 to 33 last week under the Friday night lights, but another game caught parents' attention.

"We were walking by, they looked and saw him and recognized him and yelled at him to come here," said David Friend.

A group of Berryhill elementary students invited six-year-old Connor Friend to join their game.

"We recognized he had Down Syndrome and stuff so we started playing with him and started saying, he could throw a better ball than our quarterback and stuff," said Sutton Goshorn, a Berryhill student.

It's one of David's biggest fears, his son being left out.

"That’s our biggest wish as a parent is inclusion, and just be treated as any typical child," said Friend.

Their wish came true, warming the hearts of many in a Berryhill Facebook group.

"Me and another girl are the administrators of that Facebook group so usually we deal with all of the negative so it is nice to see something positive," said Rhiannon Goshorn, Sutton's mother.

Rhiannon Goshorn was proud to see her 11-year-old son Sutton as part of the group that included Connor.

"I always encourage him to be kind and to befriend someone that maybe doesn’t have anyone to play with," said Goshorn.

It's a lesson these kids practiced on their own.

"It wasn’t the kids being told, it went beyond the kids," said Friend.

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