The Daily Mail reports:
Ashlee Buratti, of St. Cloud, Florida, had invited her son Glenn’s class of 16 children to his birthday on February 8, and when no one showed up, he was devastated.
Though no one RSVP’d, Buratti and her husband John Buratti were ‘still holding on to the hope that some of them would show up’ to the party for her son, who has epilepsy and a mild form of autism.
‘From the minute he woke up that day he wanted to know how many minutes until his friends came,’ Buratti, 25, said, adding that his eyes filled with tears when he learned no one was coming.
The mother-of-three posted on a locally run Facebook page with more than 10,000 members titled, Osceola Rants, Raves and Reviews List, to express her frustration, according to the Osceola News-Gazette.
‘I know this might be something silly to rant about, but my heart is breaking for my son. We invited his whole class (16 kids) over for his 6th birthday party today. Not one kid came,’ she posted.
And when other group members saw the post they sent Buratti messages asking if they could bring their own kids to Glenn’s party to celebrate.
The message even reached staff from the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, who asked for the family’s address and said a helicopter would fly over their St. Cloud home.
Strangers came and showered the birthday boy with gifts. Police and firemen even came out and gave tours of their vehicles to Glenn and his new friends. Such a great act of kindness from people in the community. Who knew that no one showing up to his birthday party could tune into a birthday party he will be sure to remember for years to come.