Twelve-year-old Matthew Flores asked his mailman, Ron Lynch, for junk mail, because the Salt Lake City boy had no way to get to the library and couldn’t afford to buy books.
“Today while delivering mail to his apartment complex, I saw him reading ads, and then he asked me if I had any extra mail he could read,” Lynch wrote. “He told me his wish is to have books to read. I told him the library had many, but he said they don’t have a car, and couldn’t afford the bus.”
In the Facebook post quoted above, Lynch asked his friends to donate old books so Flores could read something other than advertisements.
Lynch believed the post might get 50 or 60 books at most, according to his interview with local news outlet KSL. Little did he know, his request would go viral, and people from around the world have sent books for Matthew Flores to read. Hundreds of books have landed on his door so far, and Flores said he was amazed by the generosity.
“They said, ‘These books are for you,’” Flores told Salt Lake City’s Deseret News on Sunday. “I thought they were mistaken, but they were for me.”
He said he is excited to share the books with other kids, and has vowed to read every single one.