When a City Turned Night into Day for a Little Boy #WATWB

They say only God can turn night into day. They are wrong. Ask the citizens of El Dorado, Kansas.

Peyton Madden is a 11 year old child suffering from the extremely rare genetic disorder xeroderma pigmentosum which prevents his skin from healing itself (unlike ours) when exposed to sunlight. As a result, he can never go out in the morning, attend school or meet his friends in daylight without every single inch of his body being covered.

It is an extremely hard life. The citizens of his community thought so as well because they decided to do something about it. But how does one 'undo the Sun' and let the boy lead a normal life, even if it is just for a day?

The folks at El Dorado hit about the amazing concept where everyone decided to turn night into day by teaming up with the National Organization for Rare Disorders and creating a surprise 'day' for Peyton and his family.

On this night, after the sun went down and Peyton came out to ride his bike at night as he usually did, he found himself not alone in the darkness but surrounded by every member of the community who had come together just to be with him. From the children to the policemen, firefighters, shopkeepers and drummers, swimming pools and even the mayor himself, everyone came out to party with this young boy and remind him that he was not forgotten and they would always be there for him.

You can watch the people of El Dorado set up their magical #GoodMorningPeyton day here.



Especially in today's world, it is important to showcase such important acts of community kindness to remind the rest of the world to choose to be empathetic to those less fortunate than oneself.

Authors note:

This post is part of the We Are the World Blogfest, a monthly event to showcase stories of compassion. The hosts for this month are Shilpa Garg, Simon Falk, Lynn Hallbrooks, Eric Lahti, Damyanti Biswas and Guilie Castillo. The idea is to spread positivity and light to counterbalance the negativity and darkness in socialmedia. You can check their pages to find the list of feel-good stories written by bloggers from around the world.

This is also my take for the #FridayReflections prompt - "There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart."

Do you want more stories of 'Real-Life Heroes of Kindness and Compassion' from around the world? I have been compiling a list for more than a year now - from small children to elderly women, from waiters to Presidents - you will see that everyone of us is capable of being a hero of kindness to others if we choose to be so. You can check them out here.