{"id":182380,"date":"2018-05-08T14:35:37","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T18:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=182380"},"modified":"2018-05-08T16:13:27","modified_gmt":"2018-05-08T20:13:27","slug":"video-sister-down-syndrome-viral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/video-sister-down-syndrome-viral\/","title":{"rendered":"Video of model’s surprise party for sister with Down syndrome goes viral"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chris Garafola is a well-known male model with tens of thousands of followers on social media, listed as one of Harper Bazaar’s hottest guys to follow on Instagram<\/a>. But Garafola is not just a pretty face — he also has a heart of gold for his big sister, Brittany, who has Down syndrome. Last October, he threw Brittany an incredible birthday party<\/a>. People Magazine spotlighted the surprise, and recently shared a video — which quickly went viral.<\/p>\n

The video, which had millions of views and thousands of shares, followed Garafola’s birthday surprise for Brittany. The siblings grew up in Vermont, where Brittany wanted to do whatever her little brother did. So when Garafola became a model, Brittany wanted to do the same thing. \u201cWhen I started to show her the commercials or magazines I was in, she would tell me she wanted to do it, too,\u201d he said in an interview with People. \u201cBut I told her that she was already a model\u2014I was trying to be like her!\u201d Brittany continued to bring it up, though, and so for her birthday, he arranged a special party. He gathered photographers, videographers, stylists and make-up artists together, all of whom volunteered their time, so she could have her very own professional photo shoot. Garafola then told her that they were going for a walk. \u201cIt was killing me seeing the look on her face!\u201d he recalled. \u201cShe looked at me like, \u2018Come on, man, aren\u2019t we going to do something?\u2019”<\/p>\n

READ: Mom of girl with Down syndrome: Mia is ‘a different kind of perfect’<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

When they finally arrived at the location of Brittany’s photo shoot, she was thrilled. \u201cShe started jumping up and down and giving me a hug and crying,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was really emotional.\u201d She spent the next few hours getting the celebrity treatment from her hair and makeup specialists before posing in designer outfits.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was a supermodel and she knew it, it was her day to be a real professional model,\u201d he said. \u201cShe did a lot better than many of the models that I\u2019ve worked with, I was very impressed.\u201d<\/p>\n