West Springfield Boy In Inspiring Target Ad: 'Keep Going With Your Dreams'
BOSTON (CBS) - An Arizona boy in a wheelchair was inspired when he saw someone like him on an advertisement in Target. In a Facebook post that has gone viral, the boy's mother wrote, "Oliver sees kids every day, but he never gets to see kids like him. This was amazing!"
"He stopped his wheelchair dead in his tracks, and he flipped it around and he just looked straight up [at the ad]," said Demi Garza-Pena, Oliver's mother.
She hopes other stores will catch on.
"Everywhere, everybody, everywhere all the time," said Garza-Pena. "That would make a huge difference."
The boy pictured in the ad, in a wheelchair grinning from ear-to-ear, is Colton Robinson from West Springfield, Massachusetts.
"I think it's really cool that he looks up to me," Colton said.
The 10-year-old uses a wheelchair to get around. That doesn't stop him from having fun, popping wheelies, playing with his puppy Sully, and being a happy-go-lucky kid.
Garza-Pena's post has more than 20,000 shares and more than one million views. Colton's mother, Ashley Robinson, says she is overwhelmed by all the kind words they have received on Facebook.
"As soon as I saw it, I started crying," Ashley Robinson said. "I think it's so important for representation of all sorts of disabilities and all sorts of different cultures and people. It's important because people want to relate to someone."
Her very own son is now a source of inspiration.
"It was just a beautiful moment to see," Garza-Pena said. "Just him, admiring someone like him, because he doesn't get to see that very often."
Colton has some advice for kids like him. "Just never give up and if you're in a wheelchair, just keep on going with your dreams," he said.