GILBERT, AZ. - Two-year-old Quinn Walker’s face lights up as she builds a snowman in her front yard.
Quinn’s home is the only home in a Ca Gilbert, Az. neighborhood that looks like a winter wonderland on a bright, sunny day.
She was born with half a heart. She’s already had two surgeries. She is too sick to go to the mountains to see snow this year, so the snow came to her.
“They heard that Quinn wasn’t able to go up to the snow this year,” said Adam Walker, Quinn’s father. “The cardiologist told us not to take her up, so they had five tons of snow delivered this morning and now all of the kids in the neighborhood and friends and family are out here playing in it.”
Casa Grande police officer Mike Berjarano and nurse Melissa Ramos worked with Quinn’s father for 15 years and organized this snow day.
“We take care of our own and that’s not just our own, but our families and sometimes there are times when we need to be there more,” Berjarano said.
With her oxygen tank just feet away, Quinn made snowballs and played with her friends, enjoying a snow day far away from the hospitals and doctor’s offices she visits so often.
Quinn’s mother, Sandy Walker said, “She squealed and has been playing in it since they made it this morning. Yeah, it helps not to think about the hospitals and appointments that we go to all the time weekly. It’s a little hard that we’re in this situation and people probably would do this stuff if she wasn’t sick, so yeah, I wish it wasn’t this way, but since it is we have a great support system behind us.”
Quinn has a third heart surgery scheduled for April.