South Brunswick Teens Sought For Being Kind To Boy: Video

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — You just never know how a little bit of kindness can have a positive effect on another person.

That's what one South Brunswick mom experienced after she took her 5-year-old son, who has autism, to the playground this past Tuesday evening. Carter was initially "really nervous" about a group of older kids playing nearby, and wanted to leave. But he bravely stayed on his scooter and ended up being serenaded with a surprise "Happy Birthday" from the pre-teens. Mom Kristen Braconi said Carter hasn't stopped talking about it since, or stopped watching the cell phone videos she took.

And now the South Brunswick police department wants to find those kids, too, and throw them all a pizza party, Carter included.

It all happened this past Tuesday evening, March 26, when Braconi, 30, took her son to the skate park behind the South Brunswick police station. Carter, 5, has high-functioning autism and ADHD and his behavioral therapist was with him at the time. But because her son is so high functioning, and because she doesn't want people to treat him differently, Braconi said she rarely tells people he is autistic.

"We wanted to take him to the park to see if we could get him to interact with some kids and try to help him be more social," Braconi told Patch. "He gets nervous around a lot of people sometimes because it can be overwhelming. When the bigger boys got there, he said to me 'Oh no,' and he thought he was going to have to leave because he didn't want to get in their way."

"I tell him don't talk to strangers, and he takes things literally," said the mom. "I told him I was there, and these kids were OK."

So Carter bravely kept scooting.

What happened next stunned Braconi.

Instead of shunning the little boy, the older kids welcomed him. An older boy in a black shirt showed him how to ride his skateboard. When Carter fell off, the boy picked him up and put him back on and told him that learning how to ride isn't easy. When his mom casually mentioned that it was Carter's birthday, the pre-teens all sang "Happy Birthday" to him. You can tell in the video the little boy was stunned, but he played it cool and kept scooting. Braconi was so surprised, she said she knew she had to capture it on camera. Watch the videos:

"They made him feel so special," said Braconi. "He kept telling everyone when we got home about how nice the boys were and he has watched the videos for two days in a row."

Braconi posted two videos to the South Brunswick Community Facebook group; she said she just wanted to find the boys' parents and thank them for raising such nice kids. So do the South Brunswick police, who tweeted the videos and said they too want to find and identify the local kids at the playground.

"These kids are local superheroes," South Brunswick Deputy Police Chief Jim Ryan told Patch. "They didn't have their parents around, they didn't have their teachers around. They were just nice on their own. It's the kind of video that restores your faith in humanity."

"Kindness is something that is hard to teach you know?," said Braconi, who was just recently hired as a nurse at St. Francis. "So when you see anyone doing it, it needs to be recognized. It sets an example, especially for my little one! I bought ice cream for them, which (Carter) handed to them. He was so happy to give them something to say thank you."

And perhaps without even knowing it, the pre-teens helped a little boy with autism become a lot more confident in social situations.

"After they included him, his whole demeanor changed," said Carter's mom. "He seems more confident now and I think more comfortable to be at the park. Hopefully he will feel like he can be more social."

If you know who these local kids are, please contact Lieutenant Gene Rickle at South Brunswick police headquarters, so police can recognize them! (732) 329-4646