8-year-old arson victim wish comes true

N.Y. — It’s a story that has touched people all over the world.

8-year-old Safyre Terry was severely burned in an arson fire that killed her father and three siblings in 2013.

In December, Safyre told her aunt that all she wanted for Christmas was enough cards to fill her Christmas card tree. That wish went viral on Facebook and people all over the world to send cards to Safyre.

She has gotten more than 2-million pieces of mail and volunteers are spending hours each day sorting through all of it.

“We can’t get over how many countries are represented,” says Diane, one of the volunteers.

Another volunteer, Ryan Lorey said, “We got stuff from Iceland, Australia, Russia, you know just about everywhere big that you can think of we have stuff.” Ryan Lorey is in charge of an operation that looks like a post office or a company’s sorting facility. But this is all for one girl.

Diane and the other volunteers read each and every card they open. (diane, volunteer)

With the horrible ordeal Safyre went through, the people who are here now to help her see the messages in all these letters, as a sign of hope.

“There are so many good people in the world, and we’re seeing it with all these people and with these millions of cards, at least 2 million cards plus. Not counting gifts, so that’s a lot of love,” says Judy Nelson, another volunteer that helps sort everything out. There are still thousands of cards left to open and even more packages.

Lorey says, “It all has to be opened it all has to be touched by human hands, we’re gonna do the best that we can. It’s gonna take a while, we know that.” Lorey knows people will keep coming in to help the little girl who’s story has touched the world.

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