DENVER — Birthdays are usually a special day to feel love and caring. After hearing about a local vet approaching his 100th birthday, Denver7 viewers made sure Frank Cunningham felt that love by sending him over 1,700 birthday cards.
“They took the time and effort to make a stranger feel happy and that’s a pretty remarkable thing,” Cunningham’s grandson Geoff Walter said.
Walter had heard that his grandfather received a single letter in the mail a few months ago and it made his day. So he had an idea.
“I figured the goal, if we were being ambitious, we could get 100 friends to send him 100 cards for his birthday. Each for one year,” he said.
Frank’s 100th birthday is June 29. Denver7 heard about the story, and shared the details online, asking for people to send cards and help reach that goal.
“It’s like what you see in a movie when the postman shows up with big bags of cards for Santa Claus. It’s crazy,” Geoff said the day before the big birthday, as he walked into his grandfather’s retirement home with the cards that were sent in.
The total came out to more than 1,700, from 49 of the 50 states and several countries including Canada and Japan. It took two large plastic bins to carry them in.
“I just can’t believe it. Look at all the stuff,” Mr. Cunningham said.
Cunningham is a World War II veteran, and was married for 72 years before his wife passed away last year. He cried when he heard how many cards there were.
“I can’t believe that many cards,” he said.
“It makes me feel good that he knows, he remembers, people are out there that are thinking of him and sending him love on his birthday,” his grandson said.