Tristan Caron, 7, Has Autism and Was Sitting Alone at a Massachusetts Trampoline Park Until Four Milford Teens Asked Him to Play for 40 Minutes

A ball Tristan Caron had just won was all the opening Livy Molinari needed. The Milford, Massachusetts, teenager noticed the 7-year-old sitting alone at Urban Air Adventure Park in Bellingham, told him it was a really nice ball and asked if she could hold it, according to Sunny Skyz, which summarized the CBS Boston and WBZ-TV reports.

Tristan, who has autism, agreed. Molinari and three friends then played with him for about 40 minutes, and his mother, Christina Caron of Foxboro, has since made sure the group knows what it meant.

A Boy Alone With His Prize

CBS Boston reported that the encounter happened on a Monday in mid-October, while Tristan was at the park with his mother. Christina Caron was waiting in line for popcorn when the teens went over to her son, according to CBS Boston.

The teens were Molinari, Kelsey Zozzaro, Anna Held and Kenny Leite, all from Milford. They told WBZ-TV they did not know Tristan had autism. They had simply seen a boy by himself and wanted to include him.

Zozzaro said Tristan “was really excited and happy” when the group asked his mother if he could play with them too. Held told the station the group wanted “to include him and have a fun time playing around at Urban Air.”

Forty Minutes of Catch, Hide-and-Seek and Slides

The play lasted about 40 minutes, CBS Boston reported. The group tossed the ball, played catch, joined in a game of hide-and-seek and used the slide.

The park’s own page for the Bellingham location lists trampolines that extend to the walls, a ropes course, a warrior course, tubes, an indoor zipline and indoor climbing walls. The Urban Air Bellingham page also describes a monthly Sensory Friendly Play session on the second Sunday of each month from 8 to 10 a.m., designed for children with autism and other special needs, with loud music and flashing lights turned off. The reports do not say the teens and Tristan met during that session, since the visit took place on a Monday.

Held also said the group felt “really happy he felt included and as joyful as he did.” Leite said it was nice that the group included him and that other people would now get to hear about it, and he hopes others will think about including people who are left out.

A Mom Who Went Looking for Them on Facebook

Christina Caron said her son is rarely met with kindness. “More often than not, he’s not met with kindness,” she told CBS Boston, adding, “It can change the trajectory, and it just meant so much to me.”

She described the teens’ inclusiveness as a “really good feeling” and said it was reassuring to see so many young people willing to accept Tristan, CBS Boston reported. She thanked the group on social media and identified them through Facebook.

She also said she hoped to reach their parents to tell them how much the afternoon meant to her and her son. CBS Boston reported that she called the experience life-changing for Tristan, who usually gets left out.

What the Park Says Is Next

Urban Air owner Chad Darling said the story reflects the positive connections young people can make, CBS Boston reported. He said the Bellingham park has been operating for about eight years.

The park has contacted Christina Caron and plans to invite everyone involved back for a day celebrating the teens’ kindness, according to CBS Boston. CBS Boston had not reported a date for that day when it last updated its stories on Oct. 16 and Oct. 19.

Autism in Children and the Play That Gets Missed

Tristan’s story sits against a larger backdrop. The CDC’s autism data page says about 1 in 31 8-year-olds were identified with autism spectrum disorder in its monitoring network’s estimates for surveillance year 2022, up from about 1 in 150 in surveillance year 2000. It also says autism is more than three times as common among boys as among girls.

The CDC’s overview of autism describes it as a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain, with difficulty in social communication and interaction among its signs. It adds that as children with autism become adolescents and young adults, they may have trouble building and keeping friendships and communicating with peers.

The nonprofit Pathfinders for Autism, summarizing the same 2025 CDC release, reported that the prevalence among 4-year-olds was 1 in 34, that the median age at diagnosis was 47 months, and that only half of children are diagnosed by age 3.

For one 7-year-old in Bellingham, a prize ball, four teenagers and 40 minutes of play changed an ordinary afternoon, and his mother says she wants the teens’ families to hear about it.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Michael Rivera – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons. Stock photo of a different trampoline park, not Urban Air Bellingham.