Cafeteria worker helps boy with dwarfism by getting his personal cart a serious upgrade

A kind-hearted cafeteria worker and her husband made a big difference for a six-year-old boy in Oregon who has dwarfism by getting his lunch cart a serious upgrade.

Enedelia Mottram who serves lunch in the Beaverton School District noticed Julian Worsham in his first week of first grade.

While Julian loves all the things any other six-year-old does — Super Mario, Taekwondo, playing with his brother — he also has achondroplasia, which is the most common form of dwarfism.

“He’s born into a world that just, in some ways, is not built for him,” Julian’s father Brett told KGW8.

His mother Heather said she knew that when he started first grade a lot of accommodations would need to be made for him, but she had not considered the cafeteria. Julian needs help moving about and cannot see what’s on the counter.

Enter Ms Mottram, who saw that Julian’s temporary lunch cart was an upside-down milk crate on wheels, held together by duct tape.

“I just wanted to help Julian, because I mean his head barely reaches the lunch line. He can’t see anything,” Ms Mottram said.

She spoke to her husband, James, a metalworker, who said he wanted to help.

“I thought we could do so much more for him, you know. I wanted to make something cool that he would be happy to push around and be proud of,” he said.

Despite never having done a project quite like this one, he and a team of metal builders at Wright Manufacturing in Portland used their free time to help Julian.

In the meantime, the school was able to find another cart, but the team thought they could build something more personalised for him.

After two weeks they delivered a very special, adjustable cart with handlebar grips like a motorcycle, flames on the side, personalised number plates, and a matching stool for Julian to use to see what’s available on the counter — which is stored within the cart when not in use.

Julian’s parents are blown away and didn’t realise how amazing the final cart would be, and Julian is a fan too, loving the flames and licence plate.

“They took the time to get those license plates with his name, which is just like, they just really put a lot of heart into it. So when I saw it, the first thing I saw was actually a picture of James and his team who made the cart and I cried. It’s just such a sweet thing,” said Ms Worsham.

“The incredible amount of kindness that’s been directed our way you know, especially for my boy Julian here, this has been amazing,” added her husband.

Ms Mottram says that Julian is now independent, whereas before he had to be helped by a member of staff.

This is also not the only time that Julian has been on the receiving end of such kindness. A platform on which he was supposed to be able to rest his legs under his desk would not work, and so his teacher asked her brother-in-law to make something to replace it.

“There’s just wonderful people in this world that, you know, they have their eyes open. They’re seeing needs that need to be met and they’re meeting them. So I hope that other kids can get their needs met to through this,” said Ms Worsham.

She added: “I just feel so grateful.”