WASHINGTON — Last Friday, a 12-year-old boy in Utah was begging for junk mail to read, the only material he had access to. Now, thanks to his mail carrier, he doesn’t have to.
Ron Lynch was delivering mail to Matthew Flores’ apartment complex when he noticed the boy was reading mail that had been thrown into a junk mail bin, reports The Deseret News. Naturally, the Sandy Post Office carrier was curious.
“A young man was standing here reading junk mail and asked me if I had any extra,” recalled Lynch.
When Lynch asked Mathew why, he said that he liked to read. Lynch suggested he read books instead, but Mathew explained he didn’t have any, and his family didn’t have a car or money for the bus to get to the library.
Lynch, struck by the boy’s love for reading, took to Facebook to solve his dilemma, and the response was massive.
“I was given many books as a child, and it’s time to help someone else!” Lynch wrote in the post. “Please share and let’s get him tons of reading material! Most kids his age want electronics! It’s great to see his desire, and you should have seen him beam when I said I could help!”
The post went viral, and in the week since, Mathew has been flooded with books from around the country. Some even came in from the U.K. and Australia.
“They said, ‘These books are for you,'” Mathew told the Deseret News. “I thought they were mistaken, but they were for me.”
Mathew has promised to read every book.
“I’m just super happy.”
