18-year-old Meiergerd is a senior student with Down syndrome at West Point-Beemer High School in West Point, Nebraska. In addition to competing in the Special Olympics, the teen is also an honorary member of his school basketball team.

For the last two weeks, Meiergerd has been working to perfect his backwards half-court shot so he could show off during half-time.

When he successfully managed to sink the basket in front of the entire student body, the crowd went wild.

Footage of his impressive shot was shared so widely on social media, the Globetrotters invited him to be their guest of honor for their spring performance in Omaha.

(WATCH the stunning video below)

This article originally appeared on Good News Network.

The post After Scoring A Trick Shot, Teen With Down Syndrome is Contacted By Globetrotters appeared first on Positive Celebrity News, Good Celebrity Gossip, Positive Entertainment News | Good Celebrity.

For Amanda Bowman Gray, the song, “You Are My Sunshine,” has special meaning. It was in April 2016 that she and her husband, Caleb Gray, would sing the song to their newborn son, Bo, while he was in the hospital preparing for heart surgery.

Bo, who has Down Syndrome, was born with heart and lung conditions and has undergone multiple treatments to help correct them. But the family stayed strong, and the parents, along with their four other children, all rallied around their youngest member.

In October 2017, Bo’s musically-inclined older sister, Lydia, began singing the sentimental song to her brother, over and over again, and it would have an unexpected result.

“My daughter was very repetitive with ‘You Are My Sunshine’ for like three months,” Bowman Gray, 40, of Heber City, Utah, tells PEOPLE. “She worked with him, and one day, they were on the kitchen on the floor with him, just doing their little music therapy, and she screamed that he said his first word, ‘happy.’ ”

By that point, Bo hadn’t said anything — not even “mama.”

“I made Lydia show me,” Bowman Gray recalls of the day in early December. “Of course, I screamed, and I brought down my husband! I teared up, I was very emotional. I got my camera out and asked him to say again and again! We were all laughing, all the kids were coming up!”

Since then, Lydia has kept up her sessions with Bo, which the family has dubbed their “music therapy.” His vocabulary has expanded to include almost a dozen more words since then. Bowman Gray even posted a new video on her Facebook page of the siblings singing their special song, and it has gone viral, garnering some 44 million views since Monday. The next song he’ll be picking up is “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” with the hope it will help him pronounce his name.

Bowman Gray says doctors initially told her that Bo likely wouldn’t speak until he was three years old, or even later, as is typical for children with Down Syndrome. A speech therapist they brought in was even shocked that Bo was able to speak so many words at just 25 months old. Bowman Gray says Bo’s progress is proof that music therapy can help children with the condition.

“The music grabs their attention and focus and takes all of the distractions away. It also calms them down when they have a lot of anxiety,” she says, adding that musical repetition helps with the exercises. “He is defying the odds. He’s defied the odds of what was possible with Down Syndrome. These kids are often put in this box, but the lid is starting to open. They are capable.”

Universities from all over the world have contacted her for permission to show the videos of Bo to their students, Bowman Gray says, and she admits she has come a long way from the fear that overcame her when she initially found out her son had Down Syndrome.

“I was very ignorant, in fact, I was scared. To be honest, I was devasted when I found out Bo had Down Syndrome,” she says, adding that until then, hadn’t interacted with anyone who had the condition. “It’s hard to see the blessings and the good that can come from it when you get that news at first. If someone would have fast forwarded and showed me at what a blessing and joy he would be, that fear would have subsided immediately.”

With about 6,000 babies born with Down Syndrome every year in the United States, Bowman Gray hopes other mothers feel uplifted by watching Bo’s videos if they feel scared after getting the unexpected news their child has the condition.

“I’m hoping that moms choose to keep their babies with Down Syndrome, and the moms who’ve kept them but are scared to death, I hope they will see these videos and see the joy that they bring,” Bowman Gray says. “A lot of people say Bo is lucky to have us as parents, but he wasn’t sent to us because we’re good parents, he was sent to us to make us better parents and people.”

This article originally appeared in People.

The post Family Uses Musical Therapy to Teach a Toddler with Down Syndrome First Word: “Happy” appeared first on Positive Celebrity News, Good Celebrity Gossip, Positive Entertainment News | Good Celebrity.

When Mikayla Holmgren was born six-and-a-half weeks early, her parents were unsure about her future. Her parents told Fox 9: “At that point, we didn’t know what life held for her.”

Miss Minnesota USA will not be Mikayla’s first pageant, but it is certainly important enough to make her future look even brighter.

Mikayla and her parents are both excited that she has been able to showcase her beauty to the world. Denise Wallace, the Miss Minnesota executive director, said: “Anybody that even spends five minutes with her knows that she is the right person to be the first to represent a community of people that need to see themselves doing something like this.”

Other than competing in pageants, Mikayla has taken gymnastics and danced for her entire life. And, like many people her age, she is enjoying herself while she attends Bethel University.

This article originally appeared on Good News Network.

The post 22-Year-Old With Down Syndrome Makes History Competing For Miss USA in State Pageant appeared first on Positive Celebrity News, Good Celebrity Gossip, Positive Entertainment News | Good Celebrity.