Las Vegas Shooting Survivor Gets Surprise From Strangers

Dude. be nice teams up with a local high school to help surprise a deserving Las Vega shooting survivor. Autumn Bignami has been teaching at Paramount High School for 14 years. She has had such an impact on the lives of the students there, that they wanted to do something special for her. After Autumn was involved in the Las Vegas shooting in October 2017, her students planned a surprise for her to feel supported and loved. Just the way that she has made her students feel.

“Mrs. Bignami is by far one of the best people in my life,” says a student named Jennifer.

Another student named Avery explains that “Mrs. Bignami is the adult to aspire to be like.”

Armondo, a former student of Mrs. Bignami, talks about how she and her husband are some of the kindest people he knows. When Armando couldn’t afford to go to a school dance, Mr. & Mrs. Bignami bought a tux for him. “When I offered whatever I had saved up,” says Armondo, “Bignami just looked at me and said ‘No. Just pay it forward.’”

After hearing about what happened to Mrs. Bignami after the shooting in Las Vegas, her students were devastated.

Her husband, Frank Bignomi, explains how his wife was shot three times during the shooting. “Once in the face, from the cheek out. Once from the back and out the side. And once in the thumb.”

Autumn had to have a total of 10 surgeries to fix her injuries from the shooting.

“I had a tracheotomy to help me breathe. They did an exploratory surgery, a reconstructive jaw surgery. A bone graft. I couldn’t walk because they took the bone from my hip.”

As Autumn is recovering and gaining strength, she recognizes that recovery is not linear and she is “still battling every day.” Her students and school community have really rallied around her during this time.

Brent, the CEO at dude.be nice, helped gather up hundreds of Autumn’s former and current students to help put on a special surprise for her.

While she was eating dinner with her family at Red Robin, her students came up to her table and one-by-one started reading messages that they had wrote for her.

One of the first students to come out and surprise her read, “You and Mr. B have shown me, year after year, that I am loved and remembered. Today we want to reflect that love and recognize you for the amazing person that you are.”

Another student shares with Mrs. Bignomi, “You taught me how to serve. You taught me how to care. My life is changed for the better for the rest of my life, and I can’t wait to serve my community the way that you did.”

It’s clear to see that the love, kindness, and generosity that Autumn Bignomi has given to her community has greatly impacted those around her.

Brent goes on to tell Autumn, “Take a second. Look around. You have breathed life into these people.”

And just like Brent explained, “If there were more Mrs. Bignami’s in this world, it would be such a better place.”