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

Dr Roshan Radhakrishnan
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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.

To show Peyton Madden who was suffering from Xeroderma pigmentosum and could not be around sunlight that he was cared for, El Dorado, Kansas turned 'night into day' and hosted a special night party just for the boy to enjoy with the entire community.

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.

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36Comments

Let me know what you think.

  1. What a thoughtful and heartwarming gesture by the community!! Thank you for sharing this lovely story with us, Roshan :)

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    1. Glad you liked it... I loved this story when I came across it

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  2. Thats community kindness at a level we should all aspire for.I loved how this little boy enjoyed the party in his honour.

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    1. Exactly.. we need to emulate this in our society

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  3. Wow! That brought tears to my eyes, and I sure to many more, for seeing this warmth and love in a community for a little boy! Such stories go a long way to prove that goodness exists in the world! Drives away a lot of cynicism, for sure!
    Thank you for this heartwarming story, Roshan!

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    1. It is tough to have faith in this era, I don't deny it.. I struggle a lot these days. But we hold on

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  4. What a wonderful, inspiring, heart-warming story - I'm so glad you shared it!

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  5. That is a wonderful story of community and a very courageous little boy. I'm glad that he knows he is so loved by all.

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    1. I wanted to showcase a community post this time.

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  6. This made me want to cry with the kindness shown to such a young boy. What an amazing community he's part of.

    I've never heard of this condition. Thanks for another informative article as well as a great #WATWB post.

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    1. It is a rare condition... I haven't seen this myself in 20 years in the medical field

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  7. Wow how thoughtful of them and it brought some tears of joy to my eyes! I hope we can also be a source of joy to some of our people!

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  9. Hi Roshan - thank you so much for sharing Peyton's story with us - gosh that community is amazing and what a delightful child Peyton is ... so wonderful to have seen the video and to know the love they all shared together ... loved it - cheers Hilary

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  10. What an amazing story of community togetherness. Salute to them. For making Peyton feel that he was supported and not alone in fighting his disodisor

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    1. Exactly... you rarely see this in today's world.

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  11. Emotional support means a lot for anyone in duress, what a lovely story of all coming up & showing they care.

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    1. Imagine a young child living like this since birth... magical effort really by the people of this city

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  12. That's remarkable Support from society for the little boy. Long live humanity. This is so inspiring act.

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  13. Kindness needs to come grin from inside only. Then only further ideas come to get in action

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  14. I read about him too and it felt really good to know about sweet gesture by the whole community around him. Must have been like a miracle for the little boy.

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  15. This is such a wonderful gesture by the community for the sake of someone who is an integral part of the community. Some of these things touches our heart and make us believe that there are many good people still in the world, who want to do things for the sake of others rather than just focus on themselves.

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    1. We need to share such stories to inspire others to do the same elsewhere

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  16. You sure know how to find the stories, Roshan. This one is great. Peyton did have his day and what a day it was! What a community they are for organising such an event. What great lessons to teach him and his friends about community spirit. Thank you for sharing and for all you do for our WATWB community.

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    1. Glad you liked it. And I love being a part of this WATWB adventure

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  17. Heart touching. This is how it should be across the world. sadly it is not..
    Thank you for sharing this.

    UK

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  18. I'm still wiping away a few tears after watching that video. That was a wonderful thing the community did. Thanks for sharing this and for being a part of #WATWB

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  19. What a heartwarming gesture. Stories like these deserve to be heard and shared than the horrors we see everyday.

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