Levittown, N.Y. — A high school student from New York wanted to come up with an interesting and different way to ask her friend— who has autism— to go to the prom with her. So she asked for help from the New York Jets players.
Sarah Kadonsky reached out to Jets players running back Bilal Powell, cornerback Dexter McDougle, and cornerback Antonio Cromartie who is her friend’s favorite player, all via Instagram. She asked for their help in recording messages encouraging Michael Pagano to go to the prom with her.
Sarah then went edited all of the clips, putting them together and played them in their classroom for Michael to see.
Michael happily accepted her invite as the whole class exploded into applause and cheered.
On her Facebook post, Sarah wrote:
“What I did was only with good intentions for MIKE and right from my heart. None of this has ANYTHING to do with me. Mike has high-functioning autism, and that does not mean that what I did for him was because I in any way pitied him. Mike is a well-known student at Division Avenue High School, and loved by every single person who is lucky enough to get to know him. Not only did I NOT want Mike to go to prom alone, but I also WANTED to go with him.”
Source: Scott Stump on the Today News website: ‘Jets asking’: High school student enlists NFL players to invite friend with autism to prom