A convoy of trucks from Walmart Heart left Belle around 10 a.m. on Saturday morning with a special passenger in the lead. Kyra Woemmel, a 4-year-old girl from Belle, diagnosed with Spastic Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy (CP), was adopted into the Walmart Heart Family and gifted with items to help her fight the disease.

Darren Evans, a co-planner of the event, said Walmart Heart’s original founder Ken Nelson met Kyra and her family at Walmart months ago.

“Ken got their contact information, but we were in the middle of planning an event for another little girl from Belle,” Evans said.

After the previous event, Nelson reached out to Kyra’s parents, Brittany Aemisegger and Seth Woemmel of Belle, and asked if they were ready to have the event. Kyra was in need of several large items to assist with her disability. CP is a permanent neuromuscular disorder causing limitation on all four limbs following a lesion on the developing brain. Kyra was born with the disease, but it took the family several years to figure out what was wrong.

“Ken found Kyra and her family two or three months ago. It took us five weeks to get everything together,” Evans said. “Stores No. 86, No. 444, and No. 138 in Springfield donated items like a bed, mattress, bed frame, wheel chair ramp, toys, cars, a DVD player and several movies and books.”

Another co-organizer Johnnie Tillman said the portable DVD player was to help with long car rides to St. Louis where Kyra receives treatment.

“The long drive is painful,” Tillman said. “Hopefully  the DVD player and movies will help take her mind off the trip.”

Kyra loves Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig. Her Walmart Heart Family gifted her with toys from each show, a blanket to keep her warm during treatments, a wheelchair, and even reached out to pro fisherman Charlie Evans who travels the country in a truck with a wrap of Paw Patrol.

“Charlie couldn’t make it,” Evans said. “But he sent her his own professional fisherman jersey because Kyra loves to fish.”

After presenting Kyra with her very own Walmart driver shirt, she was loaded into Evan’s truck and escorted to Owensville Walmart Store 0354 by Osage County Sheriff’s Department, Maries County Sheriff’s Department, EMS from Gasconade, Maries and Osage counties, and Gasconade County Sheriff’s Department met the convoy at the county line.

At Walmart, Kyra and her family were met with a party of well-wishers. Owensville Mayor John Kamler and the city’s administrator presented the little girl with a declaration to make Oct. 7 Spastic Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy in Owensville in her honor.

“The family has reached out a couple of times and are very thankful,” Evans said. “She loved her bed.”

Tillman added, “We got a mattress low to the floor so she could pull herself up.”

The family still needs a few items.

“They need a standing activity chair, a medical bed, and an adaptive car seat,” Evans said. “If anyone wanted to donate something like that to the family, they can call me at 417-209-7480.”

Kyra had plenty of friends at the Owensville Walmart party. Her Belle Elementary School preschool teacher came, as well as former Walmart Heart recipient Freya.

The seven drivers who met at the Belle Commuter lot included five from St. James Distribution Center, one from Bentonville, Ark., and another from Searcy, Ark. “We had a good showing and good support,” Evans said.

Drivers aren’t paid for this event, they donate their own time.