LEBANON, Indiana — It was a special surprise in Lebanon this weekend, just in time for high school graduation.
And it took the entire community to pull it off.
Senior Nabih Soumah is from Congo, but he has spent the last two years living with a host family and attending Lebanon High School.
He's also a standout student-athlete for the Tigers.
His teammates and friends wanted to make sure his mom could attend graduation. She hasn't seen him in-person since 2021.
They launched an account on a crowdfunding platform, and in less than 24 hours, the community raised enough money to get her across four time zones to Indiana and surprise her son.
"They knew the moment we were meeting, so they came and took some photos, little paparazzi, that was fun," said Terae Soumah, Nabih's mom. "I'm glad that he found so many opportunities to participate in sports and that he found a good community to take care of him because that's what we need to do for each other."
His mom plans to stay through graduation on Friday.
Nabih is headed for London this summer to study sports psychology.