The power of Twitter: outrage at Air Canada ends as quickly as it starts, with the airline replacing dying boy’s wheelchair

This afternoon’s Twitter frenzy—a David and Goliath story that started and ended in a matter of hours—was manna from heaven for news outlets. The story involves a boy named Tanner who suffers from muscular dystrophy. One of his dying wishes is to race through Central Park in a tutu to raise awareness about his disease. A massive online campaign to allow him to do just that raised about $30,000 in just 30 hours. He flew with his aunt Catherine Connors from Toronto to New York on Wednesday in order to prepare for tomorrow’s race. Upon arrival in New York, however, they discovered that Tanner’s $15,000 wheelchair was damaged during the Air Canada flight. Without it, he can’t go anywhere (let alone race through Manhattan in a tutu), and the airline told Connors that a replacement wheelchair wouldn’t arrive until Monday—three days after the event. The family was stranded at a Laguardia Airport and the Twitterverse, understandably, was outraged.