Why 300 People Had a Water Balloon Fight With This Boy With Apraxia

Camden Eubank was excited to celebrate his 10th birthday on July 6, but his mom, Traci Eubank, was worried about throwing a party and having only a few people show up, according to her Facebook post.

Camden has childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), a motor speech disorder, and it’s difficult for him to make friends, his dad, Wayne Eubank told WDBJ.

But when his parents made a Facebook page announcing Camden’s water-balloon-fight party, just a week before his birthday, more than 5000 quickly liked it.

Even more buzz came from Reddit.com, a the site nicknamed the “front page of the Internet.” The Eubanks don’t know who initially posted the party announcement to Reddit, but they were excited to see it get more than 4,000 upvotes. Reddit users from as near as Camden’s hometown in Roanoke, Virginia to as far as Singapore and Canada commented, hoping to make Camden’s birthday extra special. Cards and packages started arriving at the Eubank’s home soon after the post went up.

And somehow, the story got even better.

Two people sent Camden Blake Shelton concert tickets and included some money for Camden to buy a Blake Shelton T-Shirt. Camden dreams of becoming a country music singer, his mom wrote on her Facebook post.

The water balloon fight party attracted 300 guests, from family and friends to complete strangers who’d heard Camden’s story. The 10-year-old even got a special birthday wish from Senator Mark Warner:

“With all the stuff that goes on in the world … you just can’t believe when something this good comes along,” Wayne Eubank told The Roanoke Times. “We just asked for a simple water battle and for some people to come to it. We got more than that.”

See more photos from Camden’s birthday festivities below: