Chris Garafola is a model whose face you may have seen on many campaigns and commercials in the past. Represented by the renowned Elite Model Management, he’s been featured in a multitude of different ways, and has even done a commercial with Gisele Bündchen for Falabella.
However, it’s not just his pretty face and a chiseled body that had us impressed, as he recently organized a surprise birthday photo shoot for his sister Brittany, who has Down syndrome. Garafola explained to outlets that his sister had expressed interest in being a model after he began working in the industry, and would bring it up often that she wanted to do a shoot.
When I started to show her the commercials or magazines I was in, she would tell me she wanted to do it, too,” Garafola explained to People Magazine. “But I told her that she was already a model—I was trying to be like her!”
Still, she insisted she wanted to do a real photo shoot, which inspired Garafola to craft a surprise for her birthday with the help of their mother Kerryann, they drove Brittany from Vermont to Boston while he utilized his contacts to bring together the photo shoot of a lifetime.
Garafola managed to coordinate a group of volunteers, which included the great people at HIVE.Studio and Bearwalk Cinema, to help her on her big day… all while she was still completely oblivious to the entire thing!
“Birthdays are huge for Brittany, she is talking about her birthday months before it happens,” he explained as he felt surmounting pressure about the surprise.
On the day of the surprise, Garafola and their mother told Brittany that they would be grabbing a bite to eat and go for a stroll. She seemed disappointed at the lack of surprise, which made it hard for the pair!
“It was killing me seeing the look on her face!” Garafola explained later about the entire moment. “She looked at me like, ‘Come on, man, aren’t we going to do something?’ ”
They were able to keep the surprise until they got to the shoot location, and that’s when they revealed the surprise!
“She started jumping up and down and giving me a hug and crying. It was really emotional,” he recalled.
She turned out to be a real natural on the day of.
“She was a supermodel and she knew it, it was her day to be a real professional model. She did a lot better than many of the models that I’ve worked with, I was very impressed.”
The photos prove how natural she was at the entire process, and it’s a truly beautiful moment for the entire family and brings great awareness to the assumptions those with Down Syndrome often face.
He finally notes- “I want people to question what they think is beautiful, and realize that everybody should have the same opportunities in this life no matter where they’re born or what they’re born with.”
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