kids

This mum launched a Facebook appeal to replace her autistic daughter's favourite T shirt.

Ten-year-old Cami Skouson from Utah has autism. She likes things to stay the same. She has one shirt she loves, pink with flowers on it, that she’s been wearing since she was five years old. She puts it on every day when she gets home from school and then wears it to bed. She loves the shirt so much that she’ll wear it till it’s paper-thin and has holes in it. The first four times that happened, her mum Deborah Skouson managed to track down another shirt exactly the same online. But the last time the shirt wore out, Skouson couldn’t find another one anywhere. Target stopped selling the shirts in 2012. So on August 7, she took to Facebook, explaining the situation to family and friends, and ending with this plea:

“We need another ‘pink flower shirt’, so will you please share this post or even just the photo? We will pay for the shirt and the shipping if someone would be kind enough to sell it to us. It has to be this exact shirt! We’ve tried similar shirts, and they don’t cut it with Cami!

:)

The photo of the shirt that Skouson posted on Facebook. Image courtesy Deborah Skouson.

Before long, the post was being shared, thousands of times. People were contacting Skouson from Germany, Japan and the Philippines.

"Every day since this post kind of blew up I’ve just been teary," Skouson told 2News this week.

There were pink flower shirts out there, and people wanted to give them to Cami. How many shirts? More than 150, and counting.

"So far we have about 12 that have arrived at our house," Skouson said. "We have probably about 140 more that are on their way.

"It’s been beautiful to see how kind people are."

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Cami with the original shirt on her first day of kindergarten. Image courtesy Deborah Skouson.

But there was even better news on the way. Target found out about Cami. They managed to track down the fabric that was used for the pink flower shirts. They told Skouson they would make shirts from the fabric in larger sizes, so that Cami could wear them all the way to adulthood.

"The executive that I talked to said that they don’t ever want us to have to scour the internet to find something that our daughter loves so much."

Skouson spoke to Mamamia this morning. She said she was "completely shocked" when Target contacted her and told her what they were planning to do.

"Of course, I completely lost it and started crying."

A recent photo of Cami in the shirt. Image courtesy Deborah Skouson. 

So what does Cami think of it all?

"I'm not sure Cami understands what is going on, but she loves the fact that she has so many pink flower shirts! I've told her that people wanted her to have them because they love her. She just smiles and smiles as she picks each of them up."

Skouson is "touched and overwhelmed" at the response she's received from strangers.

"This experience has made me see that we are all connected, and that we are here to help and love each other. We have certainly felt that love this week."

Have you had a wonderful experience after sharing something on Facebook?