Heartwarming reaction when girl with Down syndrome makes cheerleading squad

Daily Mail

10 May, 2015 02:51 AM3 mins to read

Lacy Parker was ecstatic when she found out she made the cheerleading squad. Photos / Facebook

A 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome has become an online sensation after her mother shared a video of her overjoyed reaction when she learned that she had made her school's cheerleading squad.

DO YOU HAVE A STORY TO SHARE WITH LIFE & STYLE? SEND US AN EMAIL

Lacy Parker, from Stonewall, Louisiana, has wanted to be a cheerleader ever since her older sisters made the team at North DeSoto Middle School. So when, it was her turn to try out for the team, the whole family and community rallied around her.

"Down syndrome is a label, it's not who she is. She's an amazing little girl who strives to do whatever she wants to do,"Lacey's mother, Renee Parker told KSLA News12.

So, when the fifth grader found out she was successfully accepted to the squad, the family shared her joy with her - and the internet.

Filmed on Friday, the now-famous video shows Renee presenting little Lacey with an iPad so that she can look at the tryout results, which list the numbers of all the successful candidates.

The nervous youngster holds her face between her hands in anticipation as her mother reveals the results.

And when Lacey spots her number - 28 - her reaction is simply priceless.

"I made it," she says before being stunned into brief silence, her jaw dropping. Then she yells again, "I made it!" before leaping into the air with excitement.

Hopping up and down and throwing her arms in the air, Lacey looks like she's all ready for that pair of pom poms as her family congratulate her on making the squad.

Proud mother Renee then posted the video on to Facebook so that friends and family - in particular, Lacey's older sister in Texas - could see how she reacted to the news. Within a few hours, the video had achieved thousands of likes.

Today, less than a week after it was first posted, the 38-second video on Facebook has reached over 3.5 million views and has been shared nearly 50,000 times.

"It's funny because it's just one little girl, one little video," Renee told KSLA News12.

The mother also revealed that when Lacey was born, the doctors expected that she wouldn't live longer than ten days. Now, achieving her dream ten years later, Lacey's mum could not be more proud.

"She's never said 'I can't', she's never wanted anybody to treat her different," said Renee.

"She's always told us, 'I just want to be like everybody else'."