Your favorite musician performing for you in front of the entire school is something that doesn’t happen every day. Absolutely, she deserves it!
RaeAnne Toennies, a young woman from Germantown, Illinois, formerly adored basketball.
She spent entire days practicing and playing basketball, and her mother was incredibly proud of her.
But after that, she went to bed because of a horrible headache.
Before Rae phoned to go check on her because she couldn’t feel her legs, her mother didn’t give it any thought.
Nikki Toennies said at the time, ‘Our two-hour drive that we thought would be to a local ER turned out to be 8 months and a completely new normal for life.’
The adolescent had developed a bacterial blood infection, which had begun to cause her serious problems, according to the medical professionals who checked her.
After spending months in the intensive care unit, Rae had both of her legs amputated and her hands’ digits removed.
Her mother acknowledged that she worried about losing her daughter while she was in the intensive care unit (ICU), where she was unable to move at all.
Rae was left quadriplegic because the terrible virus also damaged her spine months later when she was finally as healthy as she could be.
She started relearning how to walk and use her hands in the months that followed her recovery.
Because her mother currently has to clean her teeth for her and because sitting at the end of the lunch table where everyone can watch me eating is not pleasant,
she remarked, ’I want to be able to run and play with my friends and be able to carry things by myself.’
Her condition has indeed improved after numerous physiotherapies, but she still has a ways to go.
She has, nevertheless, never stopped being a remarkable, upbeat individual who, in her words, ‘enjoys life like she lives twice.’
The KMOV Surprise Squad had a major surprise in store for her one day.They chose to surprise this inspiring young fighter by breaking into a pep rally, as you can see.
First of all, the Harlem Globetrotters declared that they would ask Rae to serve as their honorary coach the next time they visited the city.
This surprise had already overwhelmed the teen, but there was still so much more to come.
Rae and her family received a cheque from Frank Padak, president and chief executive officer of Scott Credit Union.
The child received $5,000 to spend on tools and other necessities to make her daily life easier.
The founder of Baking Memories 4 Kids, Frank Squeo, then gave Rae and her family a free trip to all the amusement parks in Orlando, Florida.
The final and greatest gift stunned Rae even more a visit from Drew Baldridge, her preferred country music performer!
The musician performed a tune that, as he described, had entirely new significance when he thought of Rae.
Video of the surprise below