Hundreds of Strangers Help Disabled Girl Celebrate Her 10th Birthday When None of Her Class RSVP-ed

Hundreds of Strangers Help Disabled Girl Celebrate Her 10th Birthday When None of Her Class RSVP-ed

Mackenzie Moretter was diagnosed with Sotos Syndrome, a developmental disability, when she was only a year old. Because of this problem, Moretter has had a delay in her development and finds it hard to socialize. When none of her schoolmates could attend her birthday party, her mother got to work on social media. The result was hundreds of complete strangers gathering in the local park, bringing food and gifts for the birthday girl.

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From The Daily Mail:

Strangers from around Minnesota flocked to a ten-year-old girl’s birthday party, after several of her classmates didn’t respond to their invitations, in hopes of giving her a celebration she’ll never forget.

Mackenzie Moretter, who has a rare genetic disorder called Sotos Syndrome that has delayed her development, which makes it hard for her to socialize, told her parents she wanted a ‘big-girl party’ for her tenth birthday.

This meant inviting friends, but after her parents sent invitations to Mackenzie’s classmates and heard no response, her mother Jenny Moretter took a different approach.

Jenny Moretter went on Facebook and posted in a few local groups asking families with girls around Mackenzie’s age to stop by their Shakopee home on Saturday – and the response was overwhelming.

‘I want so much for much for Mackenzie to belong and for her to have friends and people to accept her for who she is,’ Jenny Moretter told CBS Minnesota.

Mackenzie told KSMP that she is often by herself on the playground, saying that ‘kids don’t want to play me’.

Her mother said that kids seem to like Mackenzie, but they don’t seem to socialize with her. But after not getting RSVPs and having families of Mackenzie’s fourth-grade classmates cancel, she wanted to do something about it.

‘I thought to myself, it is not going to happen again this year,’ Jenny Moretter said about her daughter who was diagnosed with Sotos Syndrome when she was one year old, and her skull didn’t form completely, causing brain damage.

She hoped that with her Facebook posts that she would get comments from people wishing her daughter a happy birthday and a few families would show up to her family’s house.

‘I honestly thought it would be a matter of a few other moms out there who I touched their heartstrings,’ she told CBS.

But to her surprise, more than 700 people joined a Facebook event she titled ‘Mackenzie’s Birthday Party’.

Mackenzie’s dad, Matt Moretter, was just as surprised as his wife.

‘Jenny was hoping to get ten girls to show up and all of a sudden this happened,’ Matt Moretter toldĀ Buzzfeed. ‘We had hundreds of people arrive on Saturday.’

It’s absolutely to hear that a community had the compassion to rally around a little girl who needed it most. Thanks to the loving people of Shakopee, Minnesota, Mackenzie had a birthday she won’t soon forget. Faith in humanity restored.

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