Group steps in to help girl with cerebral palsy enjoy day at beach

The group said they saw the woman struggling to get her daughter on the beach and decided to offer their help. (Fox 5)

A group of friends who were relaxing on the beach said they saw a mother struggling to get her daughter, who was in a wheelchair, onto the sand and decided to help out. Dustin Smalley said he and his friends were taking a break from playing volleyball at St. Pete Beach in Florida, when they saw the unidentified family approach.

Smalley, who did not identify the family, said the woman’s child had cerebral palsy, and couldn’t get out of her wheelchair, Fox 5 reported.

“So we said as a group, ‘Look guys we need to go help that lady,’” Smalley told the news outlet. “So Justin Johnson and Renal Roberts went over and approached the lady and said, ‘Ma’am may we help you?’”

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Smalley said the woman said she was staying at a condo and hadn’t been able to take her child to the beach all week because she was unable to lift her out of the chair on her own. A photo shared on Facebook shows the group carrying the girl onto the beach.

“In every day, there are 1,440 minutes,” Smalley wrote on Facebook. “That means we have 1,440 daily opportunities to make a positive impact.”

The group then helped the girl return to her wheelchair when the day was over.

“We didn’t get any names or further details,” he told the news outlet, adding that the woman teared up. “We just chose to be a group of friends from college, willing to help a stranger in need.”