Casa Grande police and fire departments surprised a little girl with a “snow party” as doctors had told her parents that the 2-year-old would be unable to join them on their trip to Flagstaff.
“They said not this year — she was too sick to do it,” Quinn’s mom Sandee Walker recalled to the Good Morning America.
Due to an ongoing health condition, Quinn Walker couldn’t go on a snowy vacation with her family so local officials near her Arizona hometown decided to bring the vacation to her instead.
Quinn has been suffering from a condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), the Casa Grande Fire Department said on Facebook.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the birth defect was developed when Quinn’s mom was pregnant and it caused the left side of a baby’s heart to not form correctly and prevents normal blood flow through the heart.
The little girl has had two open-heart surgeries and has another procedure scheduled in April, GMA reported. Because of the critical condition of the girl, cardiologists have advised Sandee and her husband Adam Walker to hold off on the winter family trip.
Sandee told GMA she posted on the #QuinnStrong Facebook page, where she has documented the toddler’s journey with HLHS, and revealed to all her followers that “we couldn’t go and we were was upset about it.”
One of her followers work with Adam at the Casa Grande Fire Department and introduced to Corporal Mike Bejaran with the Casa Grande Police Department that they should do something special for Quinn.
“When Corporal Mike Bejaran heard that firefighter Adam Walker’s two-year-old daughter Quinn couldn’t make it up north to play in the snow, he took action,” CGPD wrote in a press release.
The CGFD wrote in their release that officer Melissa Ramos helped Bejaran make “the magic happen.” The Casa Grande first responders brought in five tons of snow to Quinn’s driveway and created a “snow party” for the toddler and her brothers.
“We all love snow and she can’t go to the snow obviously because of the oxygen and her medical conditions and it’s just the right thing to do,” Bejarano told NBC affiliate KPNX.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Sandee recalled to the Phoenix-based outlet.
According to GMA, the children spent their day enjoying and making snow angels and a snowman and having snowball fights. Though Quinn’s condition requires her to be connected to an oxygen tank during the outdoor activity.
“She has to be on oxygen while she plays, but we’ll take it,” Sandee told KPNX. “Just trying to soak up as many memories as we can.”
“She had the time of her life all morning,” she added to GMA. “It’s definitely hard that my daughter is so sick that people come out and do stuff like this for us, but I’m so grateful for the community we have.”
Sandee took to Facebook to share about the magical surprise on Quinn’s Facebook page. She told how excited her daughter was during the snow party.
“This was the BEST day ever!” she wrote. “So many amazing people came together to have snow made in our driveway for Quinn! We can’t take her to the snow so the snow came to her! She loved it.”
“The snow hasn’t melted yet and we are still soaking up as much snow fun as we can,” she wrote in a follow-up post featuring photos of Quinn smiling. “My beautiful little snow angel.
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