We’ve all had that one item in our closet we can’t live without. We snatch it up in every color and pray it never goes out of stock or fashion. But, for Deborah Skouson, the mother of a girl with autism, one very specific shirt means so much more.
Her daughter, Cami, has become attached to a shirt from Target’s Circo brand, and it’s now the only top she’ll wear. The problem: the cute pink with floral print shirt was sold in 2011-2012 and is now discontinued. The Utah mother is desperate to find another one, so she turned to Facebook for help.
“For the past 4 to 5 years, she has been fixated on THIS shirt,” Skouson wrote on her Facebook page. “She got her first one in kindergarten five years ago, and we have found four more since then, mostly on eBay. Her current one is almost unwearable, and eBay has gone dry. ”
In her plea, Skouson offered to pay for the shirt and shipping for anyone who could help. “It has to be this exact shirt,” she added. “We’ve tried similar shirts, and they don’t cut it with Cami!” When she updated her status last week with a call to action, her 500-plus Facebook friends took notice.
Nearly a week after her initial post, her story — along with a photo of a very happy Cami wearing the shirt — was shared by a popular San Franscisco-based news anchor, Frank Somerville. In no time, Skouson’s request went viral, with more than 36,000 total shares between the two posts.
Even more amazing, she has received 80 identical shirts so far from around the world with more on the way. Thanks to the kindness of strangers, Cami can keep rocking her favorite “pink flower shirt.”
