Vacuum cleaner salesman brings joy to boy with autism on his birthday

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Thursday, January 22, 2015
Dylan, a 14-year-old boy with autism who loves vacuum cleaners, got a special presentation and gift from a Kirby vacuum salesman.
creativeContent-WRIC TV

Dylan Greene is a 14-year-old boy with autism who absolutely loves is vacuum cleaners. So for his 14th birthday, Dylan's mother Jodie arranged to have a Kirby Company vacuum spokesman come and do a demonstration at their home.

"Dylan, his interests pretty much revolves around vacuums," Jodie told WRIC TV.

Jodie then sent the Kirby Company a letter requesting a vacuum demo for her son.

"I am reaching out to you in hopes for an answer to an unusual request for my son who is autistic. He has always been obsessed with vacuum cleaners. His favorite is the Kirby. He spends hours every day watching videos on his tablet about different Kirby's. When he isn't watching videos about them, he is talking about them. I really would LOVE to get a demo done for him for his birthday. In fact, I am even getting him a cake made that looks like a Kirby vacuum. I am writing to you in hopes that you can get me in touch with a way to get him this demo. I want to be clear that I do not intend on purchasing a Kirby. I was hoping that I could pay a flat fee or thought that maybe if you have salesmen in training that needs to get in practice demos for training purposes. I do not want anything free, but as the mother of a special needs child, it is so hard to find things to make my son happy. I know that having this demo done would just be so awesome, and it would warm my heart to see him so excited to experience that."

Kirby representatives were so touched by the letter that they got veteran vacuum salesman Al Archie to drive down from Cleveland to do a demonstration for the family, according to Autism Speaks.

Dylan, who loves vacuums so much that he even dressed up as a vacuum salesman for Halloween when he was 5, was very excited for Kirby's visit.

"He was very excited, that's all he could talk about is he couldn't wait for them to get here," Dylan's father, Charles Greene told WRIC TV.

But after Kirby completed the demonstration of their vacuum cleaner for Dylan, they made his birthday surprise even extra special by giving the boy the vacuum cleaner.

"The last thing they did was shampoo the carpet, then after they shampooed it, he told Dylan he got to keep the Kirby, which that was the surprise that nobody imagined we didn't have any idea that was going to happen," Jodie Greene told WRIC TV.

"As corny as it sounds, it was magical because I didn't think it would happen and I got to see Dylan smile and be happy," Jodie said.

Dylan, meanwhile, is loving his new vacuum cleaner.

"My best birthday present ever," Dylan told WRIC TV.