Kindhearted beach-goers carry woman with cerebral palsy

A group of college friends from Alabama is being praised for helping out a woman with disabilities while visiting the beach last month. 

Dustin Smalley told FOX 5’s Katie Muse he was at St. Pete Beach, Florida with some of his friends for a wedding last weekend when they noticed an opportunity to do something kind.

Smalley said a mother and her children approached the sand as he and friends Justin Johnson, Desiree Winslow, Terrence Smith, and Renal Roberts were taking a break from playing beach volleyball.

One of the woman’s children was bound to a wheelchair, which wasn’t equipped for the sand. So, the mother tried to carry her daughter, who has cerebral palsy, but she couldn’t do it on her own because she wasn't strong enough.

“So we said as a group, ‘Look guys we need to go help that lady,’” Smalley said. “So Justin Johnson and Renal Roberts went over and approached the lady and said, ‘Mam, can we help you?’”

The stranger gratefully agreed and thanked them, saying she hadn’t been able to take her daughter down to the beach and she had been in their condo all week.

“She teared up,” Smalley recalled.

Smalley said the mother walked up to them after carrying her daughter and thanked them for their act of kindness.

“We didn’t get any names or any further details. We just chose to be a group of friends from college, willing to help a stranger in need,” Smalley said.

The guys later carried the young woman back at the end of the beach day.

“In every day, there are 1,440 minutes. That means we have 1,440 daily opportunities to make a positive impact,” Smalley said on Facebook.

Smalley and his friends have known each other since attending college at the University of Alabama.