A military mom returned from duty to surprise her daughter in the most unique way – by popping out from inside the school mascot’s costume.
Ahead of the tear-filled reunion, Brooke Powers, 9, and her class were told that they were set to receive a visit from Boomer the Bobcat, and so the group eagerly lined up awaiting his arrival.
Plucking Brooke from the class at Blades Elementary School in St Louis, Missouri, the school’s principal then asked her to draw a ball as part of a game before, as Brooke went to sit back down, she was told to wait for another announcement.
That was when her mother Katie Herrell dramatically removed the mascot’s head reducing her daughter to tears, before the pair embraced as Brooke’s classmates watched on smiling.
Katie said: “I was very nervous and excited.
“I just wanted to run into the room and hug her but couldn’t wait to see her face when she figured out it was me.”
Katie, 39, is a chief warrant officer with the U.S. Army, and having been stationed in Ft. Gordon, Georgia, for the past four months, she wanted to find a way to surprise her daughter.
In order to make the surprise work, Katie drove overnight after making a call to her daughter’s teacher.
Katie said she wanted to surprise her daughter so badly, as Brooke had been bummed that her mother could not make the 9/11 ceremony held at the school a month earlier.
Katie added: “It’s hard to be a service member and away from your family, but what a lot of people don’t realize is how hard it is for the family back home.
“The teachers and staff at Blades Elementary are amazing and made sure that the event was something she will never forget.”
Story courtesy of T&T Creative Media
