PHOENIX — An Arizona toddler who uses a wheelchair experienced a “beautiful moment” when he saw a display in a Target store that featured a clothing brand modeled by a boy in a wheelchair.
Oliver “Ollie” Garza Pena, who is nearly 2 years old, was shopping with his mother at a Target in Peoria when he saw the display, KNXV reported. The photograph that accompanied a Facebook post about the boy has since gone viral.
“He just stared at it in awe! He recognized another boy like him, smiling and laughing on a display at Target,” according to a Feb. 4 post on Ollie’s World’s Facebook page. “Oliver sees kids every day, but he never gets to see kids like him.”
Pena has a rare congenital condition called caudal regression syndrome, or sacral agenesis, which affects development of the lower spine and can impact organ function.
“I am so happy that other kids that pass through here with their parents, will see this!” the Facebook post at Ollie’s World said. “There is a lot of focus on representing diversity, but representing people with disabilities is just as important!”
“It was just a beautiful moment to see," Demi Garza-Pena, Oliver’s mother, told KNXV. “Him admiring somebody like him because he doesn’t get to see that often.”
A Target official was pleased with the response.
“It’s what we live for, what we love to see that kind of backing and see that support not only for Ollie but just the things Target’s been doing,” Luca Bakemeier, the Target store director in Peoria, told KNXV.