To the Editor:

I thought you might enjoy this cute story. Today, at my son’s basketball banquet, Austin, who is normally quiet and doesn’t like to draw attention to himself, stood up in front of at least 100 people, got on the microphone and asked his girlfriend, Alexa Abarno, to go to the senior ball with him.

He’d been planning this special surprise promposal for weeks. He really wanted to make it special. He works at Village Pizza and they made him a special promposal pizza.

When he went in to work to thank them for the pizza and they saw his pictures and commented on how handsome he looked, he responded, “Did you see how beautiful Alexa looks?”

It definitely was a beautiful moment, watching him do something he normally wouldn’t do, and listening to the entire basketball team cheer him on.

Stephanie Carter

Altamont

Editor’s note: We first wrote about Austin Carter when he was 6 years old and his mother was brave enough to speak out about his autism, and we’ve continued to write about him as he matured and overcame bullying. Last week, we ran a picture of him playing on the victorious Guilderland Unified basketball team.