They say it takes a village to raise a child, and this week, a Vancouver family found out how true that saying really is. ******************************************************************** Want even more?! Want even more heartwarming stories?! Subscribe to Humankind's YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/1IrNzUN Like Humankind on Facebook: http://bit.ly/fbhkvids ************************************************************ KGW - VANCOUVER, Wash. -- They say it takes a village to raise a child, and this week, a Vancouver family found out how true that saying really is. It all centers around a photo of Leslie Carpenter’s five year old son Asher’s shoes. Asher is in kindergarten at Glenwood Heights Primary School in the Battleground School District. He is currently undergoing testing to find out whether he has autism, which can take more than a year. Since he hasn’t been formally diagnosed yet, his school can’t place him in special education classes, leaving him in a sort of limbo. “The school can't treat him as an autistic child. They can't give him the services, they can’t do all these different things that kids with that diagnosis can,” Carpenter said. To add to the stress, Asher has been struggling lately to tie his shoe laces, which has been a big source of frustration for him. “Every day he would come home with his laces undone, and every single day and I was at a loss with what to do,” said Carpenter. Then last week, Asher came home from school with something new on his feet. “I looked down at his shoes and thought, What are those? Where are his laces? I looked down and realized they are special laces,” his mom recalled. Someone at school had replaced them with special no-tie laces that make it easier for Asher keep his shoes laced up. It was a good deed by a stranger, no strings attached. “It blew me away, I started crying right then and there. I just broke down,” Carpenter said. Then, she posted a photo of her son's shoes, along with the story about them, to Facebook and it quickly went viral. Through her post, she was able to find out who was behind the mystery laces: Asher’s occupational therapist, Carolyn Torricelli. At the time, Torricelli said getting Asher the laces was second nature and she thought nothing of it. She had no idea the impact it would have on his family. “That's wild, I think it's great! I didn't expect it and I do appreciate the story. It really touched my heart,” said Torricelli. For Asher’s mom, it’s bigger than just the laces. Seeing her son’s teachers and school going above and beyond to help Asher while he’s waiting for a diagnosis means the world to her. “They don't just look at them [the students] as a nine-to-five job. They care about their wellbeing and them growing up. That means everything,” said Carpenter. Seeing the impact on Asher and his family has been a gift to Torricelli, too. She wants to point out that it wasn’t just her behind the laces, but her colleagues at Glenwood Heights Primary School as well. “I think it's a gift to be a part of students' journeys and I think it's a gift to be a part of students' successes,” she said. “I'm not the only one raising Asher, there are a lot of people raising him. To have somebody care that much to go above and beyond is a beautiful thing,” said Carpenter. For more of the story, click here: http://usat.ly/1NSbhhw

• published: 07 Dec 2015
• views: 87735