The morning he turned six years old, Glenn Buratti looked outside at the gigantic bounce house his parents had rented and couldn’t wait for his party so that he could play in it.
“How many minutes until my friends come over?” the little boy asked his mom and dad the moment he jumped out of bed and kept asking, “How many minutes now?” as the morning passed.
It’s a question I’m all too familiar with. My older son will constantly ask, “How many minutes until Mommy gets home? How many minutes until we can watch a movie? How many minutes until <insert random request here>?” It’s the kind of question that can drive a parent nuts.
But the countdown clock never ticks louder than on the morning of a little boy’s birthday.
Glenn, who has epilepsy and a mild form of autism, lives with his parents in a rural part of Saint Cloud, Florida. His mom invited her son’s 16 classmates to the party but none of the parents got back to her and she received no RSVPs. Still, Ashlee Buratti and her husband John held out hope that some of the kids would come to their house that morning to spend some time with Glenn.
But as the minutes turned into hours, the Buratti’s didn’t know how to answer the “How many minutes” question anymore. Glenn would be celebrating his birthday without any friends this year.
Because nobody showed up.
It was his mom’s worst nightmare and something that she worried about. Ashlee wasn’t sure if it was related to her little boy having some personal challenges. She hoped it wasn’t.
When Glenn saw that nobody was coming to his party, his eyes welled up. And mom’s heart broke.
Ashlee didn’t know what to do or where she could turn, so she decided to post her thoughts about what had happened to a community Facebook group called Osceola Rants, Raves, and Reviews. Buratti wrote, “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 put her phone down, comforted her son, and wondered what she could do to cheer him up.
Then something amazing happened.
Perfect strangers reached out to Ashlee through Facebook to ask if they could bring their kids over to celebrate Glenn’s birthday. One by one, people began showing up to Glenn’s party. The boy who is usually shy played with his new friends as if they had been best friends forever.
In no time, 25 adults and 15 kids were at Glenn’s house, celebrating his sixth birthday, giving him gifts, and eating birthday cake. And making good use of the once empty bounce house in the yard.
Then the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office dispatched a helicopter to the boy’s house to do a flyover. Glenn ran outside, pointed at the sky with a big grin, and got to experience the rush of having a real life helicopter hover right over his house and wave hello to him for his birthday.
But the surprises didn’t end there.
Glenn yelled to his mom, “The fire truck’s at our house!” and Ashlee explained that they were there to wish him a happy birthday. The local Sheriff’s Office and Osceola County Fire Rescue sent crews over to surprise Glenn and parked their police cars, a SWAT vehicle, and a firetruck in front of Glenn’s house and gave the boy tours of their vehicles. They let him sit in the driver’s seat. They gave him a little red fire hat for him to wear. And they brought more gifts to Glenn for his birthday.
What strikes me most about this story is how all of these people, from moms and dads with their own to-do lists and things that they had to get done that day to the local law enforcement and fire fighters who could have spent their time doing more important things, realized that doing something about a little six-year-old kid all alone on his birthday was the most important thing.
Sometimes just showing up and being there for someone is all that’s required.
It makes me think that the next time I see someone in need, maybe I’ll take one more step and think about what I could do to make their situation a little better. It makes me want to show up, too.
Because of the support of the Buratti’s community, their little boy had the best birthday party, ever.
Glenn Buratti woke up thinking that his sixth birthday would be one he wouldn’t want to remember. But because of many kind people who made time for him, it became a birthday he’ll never forget.