Faith in Humanity: Quarterback asks childhood friend with Down syndrome to prom

17-year-old Ben Moser didn’t have to keep his word, when as a fourth grader, he told his mom he’d take his friend Mary Lapkowicz to the high school prom. Things changed, people change, and few likely would have remembered Moser’s vow.

But Ben Moser wasn’t your typical fourth grader and he isn’t your typical high school student.

You see, Moser is a quarterback on the Susquehanna Township High School football team in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Mary is a young girl with Down syndrome, and a former classmate of Moser’s.

As students attending the same school growing up, Moser befriended Lapkowicz, often looking after her during school recess periods.

“He watched over her constantly,” said the duo’s fourth grade teacher Tracey Spogli to The Patriot-News. “If she was looking like she wasn’t having fun, he would go over and talk to her. He would pull her in to whatever activity they were doing. He just always watched out for her.”

Though the two no longer attended the same school when they reached high school, Moser kept his word from fourth grade, as two arrived at prom together last Friday.

“There shouldn’t be a barrier between someone who has Down syndrome or not,” said Moser. “You should just be who you are and do what’s right. Simple.”