High School Basketball Star Asks Special Needs Friend To Prom
Attending the senior prom is a highlight of a student’s year. It’s an important moment to be cherished and remembered for a lifetime. Star basketball player Trey Moses, of Eastern High School, Kentucky, decided to take a friend to the prom. The friend is freshman Ellie Meredith, a student with Down syndrome, according to SN Sporting News.
The 17-year-old senior went all out, carrying a bouquet of red roses along with a hot-pink sign asking Ellie out. The sign, which paid homage to her favorite singer, Taylor Swift, stated “Let’s Party Like it’s 1989. Prom?”
Before asking his friend to the prom, Trey discussed whether he should pop the question with Jason Wheatley, the adviser of Eastern’s Best Buddies program. The Best Buddies program pairs students with disabilities with volunteer buddies. Questioning Wheatley demonstrated how important this decision was to Trey, according to Sportal. Wheatley indicated the following.
“He looked at me and said, ‘Mr. Wheatley, do you think she’ll say yes?’ A guy who’s been hitting game-winning shots throughout the season and… playing in front of large crowds, and he’s sitting here saying how nervous he is before this proposal.”
Trey entered the school’s gym during Ellie’s sixth-period gym class, holding his sign. Ellie was taken aback and was quite surprised. But she quickly recovered and answered “yes.” According to the Courier-Journal, Trey stated the following.
“She was kind of speechless. She turned red a little bit.”
Ellie had been dropping hints about going to the senior prom to Trey, who has a girlfriend, but Trey let her down easy, informing her that he already asked his girlfriend Hayley McPherson to go to the prom. But he had a change of heart apparently to make Ellie happy.
Trey discussed it with Hayley, and she supported his decision to take Ellie to his prom, and even helped him create the winning sign. He even tweeted on his Twitter account that he decided to ask his best friend to the prom.
The “promposal” went viral on social media and national news when CNN picked up the story.
Trey plans to attend Ball State next year studying special education. He has worked with special education students since his sophomore year and enjoys it. “They really made me happy,” Trey said of the special needs students with whom he has worked.
The state Director Best Buddies Kentucky, Emily Cleveland, stated that Trey and Ellie demonstrate on a national level that “inclusion is something that we are moving towards and that people are providing opportunities to make new friends and break down those barriers.”
Another student with Down syndrome also got a special treat recently. An Inquisitr article reported that Michael Kelley, a young athlete with Down Syndrome whose high school officials allegedly told him to stop wearing his beloved varsity letter jacket because he “didn’t earn it,” got a special treat. Gordon Hartman, the owner of the San Antonio Scorpions, a minor-league soccer team, flew the teen and his family to Texas to watch the Scorpions’ season opener. He even went an extra step and gave Kelly a contract, making him an official member of the team, along with an honorary ring marking the team’s 2014 championship.
[Photo Courtesy Twitter]
