By Heather Graves
Correspondent
GREEN BAY – It’s every young fan’s dream – a Green Bay Packers player chooses their bike to hitch a ride to practice on.
For 8-year-old Brynn Terrien, of Green Bay, the dream was the same – minus the bike.
Brynn has autism and hasn’t quite mastered riding a bike yet.
But that didn’t stop her from coming out to training camp on Tuesday, Aug. 6 to cheer on her favorite team and hope for the chance to be picked by a player to walk to camp with.
Brynn held a sign that said “Different, not less – I have autism. I can’t ride a bike yet, but I like to walk.”
Brynn and her mom, Christine, have attended training camp before, but this is first time she has participated in Dream Drive.
While Brynn anxiously waited for the team to come out of the locker room, she played a game on her mother’s phone.
“A little boy, maybe third grade, noticed my daughter was playing Pokémon Go on my phone,” Christine Terrien said. “They friended each other (on the app) and were talking about what Pokémon they caught when the Packers started walking out.”
Terrien said the boy must have read Brynn’s sign because as the players came out and began selecting kids to ride with, the boy keep trying to get them to focus their attention on her.
“He said ‘Walk with her, she can’t ride a bike,’” Terrien said. “And not in a bad way at all. Not like he was mocking her or anything. He was very genuine.”
Terrien said that every time a player came out, the little boy pointed at Brynn to get their attention.
“I legitimately had tears in my eyes when I realized what that little boy was doing for her,” Terrien said.
And then it happened – No. 99, defensive lineman James Looney took Brynn by the hand and made her dream of walking a player to practice come true.
In all the hustle and bustle of the day, Terrien wasn’t able to thank the young man whose kindness left a lasting impression on a girl who can sometimes be left behind.
“If I could say something to him, it would be to thank him for being so kind to my daughter and to praise him for such a good deed,” Terrien said. “He probably doesn’t think much of what he did, but it meant the world to us.”
Terrien has reached out on social media to thank the boy and his family for the kindness he showed to Brynn.
Terrien said that she often worries about her daughter and how she’ll be treated in society because of her autism, but that this unprompted act of genuine kindness gives her hope that there are still good people in the world.
“That little boy made a great experience even better,” Terrien said. “It means a lot that this little boy went out of his way, and sacrificed his own chance of getting to ride with a Packer just so my autistic daughter had a player to walk with. He didn’t have to do that, but it made my daughter very happy.”
And that is something this grateful mom will never forget.
Brynn loves watching – as she calls them – the “Football Packers.”
Her favorite player is Aaron Rodgers, as well as retired running back Ahman Green.