Photo sparks friendship frenzy on Facebook
SANDPOINT — If you're not already Shane Parson's buddy, hang in there - as soon as he meets you, your name will be added to the list.
It's a long roll call that gets longer by the day. Local photographer Jason Duchow found that out last month when he was shooting a lakeside session for a senior photo. Shane came along on his bike and, as is his wont, showered photographer and subject alike with good wishes, good vibes and a generous helping of smiles.
Duchow had been made a buddy long before, when he and Shane worked in the warehouse at Coldwater Creek. Since his photo lights were set up and the sun on the lake was just right, the photographer asked the visitor to hop off his bike and step into the frame for a couple of quick pictures.
“It's not hard to get him to smile, that's for sure,” said Duchow. “He gave me that big grin, I took a few shots and he was on his way.”
Back home at the studio, Duchow reviewed the photos and found one that perfectly captured the young man known for wearing a perpetual grin. He posted it on his Facebook site and Shane's fan club came out of the woodwork.
“When I posted it, I was relatively sure it would be popular just because of who Shane is,” the photographer said. “But within the first two hours, there were 400 'likes' — that just blew me away.”
The momentum kept building over the following couple of days until more than 600 people had “liked” the link and another 125 had posted comments about Shane. From there, people began to share the post on their own Facebook timelines, prompting an additional 940 “likes” and a couple hundred more comments. To a one, the posters made it a point to give a shout out to the guy they call their buddy.
One post reads: “I think in one way or another, Shane has made an impact on everyone's life he comes in contact with — and he doesn't even know it.”
For the uninitiated, Shane Parson is, to use the current vernacular, developmentally disabled. He didn't walk until he was 2 years old and spoke only a couple of words until age 4. Doctors told his mother that he was mentally retarded and autistic. What no one knew at the time was that he was also entirely fearless and extremely friendly.
“Everywhere we go, people know him,” said his mother, Sherry Sayre.
The Facebook comments, meanwhile, point to the fact that people don't just know Shane, they're crazy about him. Asked how her son has managed to amass such a large number of pals, she said it's in his nature. Without artifice or expectation, he approaches every new acquaintance like a long-lost friend he hasn't yet had the pleasure of meeting.
He'll go up to strangers in a different town, stick out his hand and say, 'Hi, I'm Shane — Can I be your friend?” his mother said. “He's not afraid to be friendly.”
Any employee at Silverwood will back up that assertion. Shane travels there every single Saturday to spend the day on the rides. You'd think a visiting dignitary had rolled in, given the shouts of “Hey, Buddy!” that come his way from the ride operators and people waiting in line. He's something of a fixture — make that a legend — at the theme park, based on his love of roller coasters and his stamina for riding them. One ride completed, he jumps out and double-times it back to the end of the line. In a full day, he can make up to 20 or more trips on the park's coasters.
A different breeding ground for new buddies is bowling league, where Shane considers anything under 200 to be a bad game. All smiles as he steps up to the line with his 16-pound bowling ball and size 15 shoes, he regularly amazes his teammates with strikes that threaten to pulverize the pins.
When Silverwood closes for the season, Shane can be found on the ski hill, where he makes non-stop runs from the time the lifts open until closing. You guessed it - he is a celebrity at Schweitzer, too.
The place where most people encounter this friendly guy is at Walmart, where he has worked for the past 10 years, moving carts out of the parking lot and back into the front of the store. Built like a linebacker, Shane is strong enough to push a huge string of the metal carts at once, which he used to do until the store asked him to transfer no more than 10 at a time.
“They had to give him a limit,” his mother said, “because he pushes those carts around like they're nothing.”
Jason Duchow happened to run into Shane that day along the lake because the young man was on his way to one of his favorite spots. It's a location his mom showed him when he was younger, telling him that she called it her “Laughing Place” after the same description Br'er Rabbit gave to his favorite hiding spot in the classic Uncle Remus Tales. Whether because he misunderstood the name or just decided to revise it on his own, Shane calls the spot “Happy Land.”
He was on his way to Happy Land when Duchow asked him to pause long enough for a shot - the same shot that sparked a Facebook frenzy when people saw their buddy grinning back at them from the screen.
“I've never had any photo that has taken off like that one,” the photographer said. “And it's not because of the photo - it's the person in the photo.”
That person, according to his mother, is immutably, immeasurably happy. Perhaps that's why people are so glad to run into him as he waits for the Spot bus, rides by on his bike or shouts out, “Hey, buddy!” when he sees them across the parking lot. If you're having a bad day, you can't stay grumpy for long with Shane around. His unflagging enthusiasm for life — whether you want it to or not — rubs off on you.
“He never changes,” Sayre said. “He has a love for people that is so sincere. “All those years I spent worrying about his potential were for nothing,” she went on. “He's amazing - there's no one like him. And he's happier than most people will ever be.”
To view comments from Shane's friends, visit the Jason Duchow Photography site at www.facebook.com