Blackhawks' Duncan Keith Helps a Little Girl Score a Goal

Unable to walk or speak, 5-year-old Cammy Babiarz of Wheaton was born with Rett syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects one in every 10,000 girls. She was diagnosed at 9 months of age.

Recently, her mom, Jackie Corrado Babiarz, submitted a photo of Cammy wearing a pink leg brace with a Chicago Blackhawks logo to the team’s #WhatsYourGoal campaign.

Cammy’s goal: To score on the ice with an assist from her favorite Blackhawk, defenseman Duncan Keith.

Watch for yourself, and try to hold back the tears.

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“She was star-struck,” said her dad, Bill Babiarz, describing Cammy’s surprise meeting in the locker room at Johnny’s Icehouse, the Blackhawks practice arena.

Cammy speaks through a custom computerized soundboard attached to her wheelchair.

“I have lost five teeth, how many have you lost?” she asked the hockey player.

“Oh, I’ve lost 10 teeth,” Keith told her.

And then, as gentle as could be, Keith strapped her into a harness attached to his body and brought her onto the ice with him. Besides this memory of a lifetime, Cammy received two jerseys, a signed stick and a duffle bag of Blackhawks memorabilia.

Greg Wyshyinski, reporting for the Puck Daddy blog on Yahoo Sports, writes that Cammy soon will spend two months in Boston in a clinical trial for Rett syndrome. And she’ll certainly have a wonderful story to share with her new friends in Boston.

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