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ORLANDO, Fla. – The mother of a six-year-old boy with autism is thankful after her local community and emergency responders saved her son’s birthday celebration after no one showed up at his party.
According to WKMG in Orlando, six-year-old Glenn Buratti had invited his entire elementary school class, which included 16 kids, to his birthday party. However, when the day of the party arrived, not a single person showed up for the celebration. His mother, Ashlee Buratti, said her son was devastated and refused to crack a smile for the rest of what was supposed to be his special day.
“To see the look on his face killed me inside,” she told WKMG.
A frustrated and heartbroken Ashlee turned to social media, where she wrote a single post about the unfortunate events of the day.
“He keeps asking ‘when will my friends get here?’ Poor kid. I feel so bad for him,” she wrote.
After her post began circulating online, she was inundated with comments and messages from people she didn’t even know in her community, who wanted to chip in and help the little boy.
After word got out, the Orlando station reported that children and their parents began showing up at the family’s home with gifts in hand.
Little did Ashlee know, but her Facebook post also captured the attention of the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, who ended up sending a sheriff’s helicopter to her home to do a special flyover just for Glenn. She said her son smiled and waved the entire he watched the helicopter.
During the next week, local law enforcement continued the boy’s birthday celebration by sending police cars and fire trucks to visit him at his home. The first responders also pitched in out of their own pockets to buy him birthday gifts.
The family said they were overwhelmed by the support of the community.
“The amazingness of everybody coming together for someone that they didn’t even know,” Ashlee told WKMG. “A kid that didn’t have anybody come to his birthday party. It warmed my heart.”
So far Ashlee says there has been no word from the parents or children from Glenn’s elementary school as to why no one who was originally invited attended his party.
