Sweet Promposal Stuns Special Needs Student: Watch

BURNSVILLE, NC — Rachel Newberry has known for a long time that she wanted to ask Ben Robinson to be her date at the upcoming Mountain Heritage High School prom. But she didn’t know how to ask her lifelong friend. He deserved “over the top and crazy,” Newberry said of the “promposal” plan she and her friends hatched.

Ben is a special needs student. Kids like him are often passed by in the flurry of prom season. Rachel was having none of that for Ben, her friend since they were toddlers. An April 23 video of her surprise promposal is winning the internet, with hundreds of thousands of views on Twitter alone.

It really is the sweetest thing.

Ben walks into the high school auditorium as the Randy Newman song “You’ve Got a Friend In Me” plays. He collects stems of flowers from his schoolmates as he walks to the auditorium stage. He has no idea what the fuss is about.

As Ben reaches the stage, the black curtains open and students flash signs. Rachel runs toward him and asks, “Ben, will you go to prom with me?”

“Yes!” he says, covering his face and then collapsing on the stage stairs as emotion overcomes him.

Mountain Heritage High School posted the video on its Twitter page with the hashtag #greatestkidsever.

They sure are. Earlier this year, Ben was crowned the high school homecoming king.

“I think it's a statement of the kinds of kids we have here,” Mountain Heritage Principal Kevin Huskins told the Asheville Citizen-Times. “The reality is these two have been friends since they were 4 years old. Just to see this moment happen was priceless.”

Rachel told WLOS-TV she “wanted to do something big and special for Ben because he deserves that.”

She’s as stunned by the attention the video has received as Ben was at being asked to go to the prom.

“I am really surprised by it,” Rachel told the television station. “I shared it (the video) on the internet so people in our community who know Ben could see it, because I know everyone who knows Ben would have loved it. To see so many people around the world who don't know him personally become happy because he's happy, it's just beautiful thing.”

The promposal video was also posted by @barstoolsports on Instagram, where more than 2.27 million people have viewed it.

The Mountain Heritage High School prom is May 19.

Photo by media_digital via Shutterstock