Inspiring Young Boy Who Inspired Christmas Record Dies

The fight is over for Dalton Dingus. In 2011, a little seven-year-old boy from Kentucky who was dying asked for only one thing that Christmas: to set the world record for receiving the most Christmas cards ever. That year I went out and bought tons of cards and brought them to work, told them what was going on and it was overwhelming how many people wanted to help and mention the deed to their entire address book in their email. I learned this morning that Dalton passed away. He was nine.

Dalton had a lifelong battle with cystic fibrosis and passed this past Saturday. That dream he had became a success two Christmas’ ago when he received more than 500,000 cards from all over the world.

"There were lots and lots of people there," said a town resident where Dalton lived, Kathy Smithers. "Members of the police department, and the fire department, and the sheriff. It felt like the whole town was here.", according to ABC.

It was a Facebook post asking friends to send cards to Dalton that went viral, picked up by a local newspaper and then media and so on. He received cards from as far away as Israel, Ireland and South Korea.

“In the days before Christmas, there were so many letters pouring in that a local television reporter with his own truck delivered the cards that could not fit in the mail carrier's van. Dalton's house became so filled with letters that at first neighbors and then his family's church would accept the mail and sort it. The letters came from children sometimes younger than him in languages he did not speak and from places he never heard of”.