How a Coca-Cola employee made this non-verbal Ontario boy’s dreams come true | 24CA News

Eleven-year-old Bryce McFeeters of St. Thomas, Ont., loves two issues: Santa and Coca-Cola, his mother says.

So when the chance got here for the Coca-Cola vacation truck to drag up in entrance of the household residence final week, Karrie McFeeters jumped on the likelihood for her son, who’s autistic and is non-verbal, to expertise it. 

It all began with a Facebook submit.

Bryce “is really hard to buy for for Christmas, and so my friend had tagged me in a post for some free Coke posters. He’s very visual and would love just to see Coca-Cola on his wall,” Karrie recalled.

It’s exhausting for us to co-ordinate going someplace and getting an image taken. It’s too loud, it is too noisy … too many individuals and it simply overwhelms him.– Karrie McFeeters, talking about son Bryce

But by the point she obtained round to requesting the posters, they have been gone.

That’s when fellow St. Thomas mother Raemie O’Brien messaged Karrie. O’Brien’s husband, Jamie O’Brien, is the merchandising supervisor for Coke Canada Bottling in London, Ont., and a volunteer for the Coca-Cola Holiday Caravan Tour, that includes a semi-trailer pushed by Santa Claus and painted purple with an enormous picture of Saint Nicholas. The truck excursions Canada, making stops at numerous spots.

It did not take lengthy for Karrie’s concept to come back collectively.

Santa visits are troublesome

Bryce communicates with a hand-held digital machine referred to as a talker, and in current days had been asking to see Santa, stated Karrie.

“He’ll type in ‘Santa’ and his talker will say ‘Santa,’ and so he’s following us around the house saying, ‘Santa, Santa, Santa.'”

But visiting a mall Santa is not straightforward, she stated.

“It’s hard for us to co-ordinate going somewhere and getting a picture taken. He’s just not comfortable. It’s too loud, it’s too noisy, it’s too many colours, too many people and it just overwhelms him, so he can’t even enjoy himself.”

Last Wednesday, when Jamie was out with the vacation truck on the Ronald McDonald House charity in London, Raemie texted her husband to see if Santa would report a video message for Bryce.

“Then about 10 minutes later, my husband calls me and he says, ‘Santa is in the Christmas spirit this year, he wants to actually bring the truck to St. Thomas and surprise Bryce,'” Raemie stated.

“I have been volunteering with the Coca-Cola holiday truck tour for the past two years and seeing the joy it brings people,” stated Jamie. “When my wife told me about Bryce it just seemed like the right thing to do. I knew he would love it.”

WATCH | The second the vacation truck rolled as much as the McFeeters household residence to shock Bryce:

The truck rolled up on the McFeeters household’s residence about 8 p.m. on Wednesday.

“He was overwhelmed at first,” McFeeters stated about Bryce. “He couldn’t believe it, and then he was just so excited and just kept staring at the truck and at Santa.

“He thought he was fairly particular that he obtained to take a seat within the truck and honk the horn,” Karrie said. “There’s no approach that we might ever thank all people that was concerned on this. He simply feels so particular. He truly did a presentation at college about his Santa go to and it is simply been superb, the entire thing.”

And what does Bryce want for Christmas now? Coke, his mom says.