A Michigan mother did not like hearing from her son that he didn’t have any friends to invite to his birthday party, so she created a Facebook page to show him that people really do care. It has gone viral and earned over 1 million likes.
Jennifer created the Happy Birthday Colin Facebook page on Feb. 2 to show Colin that there are plenty of people who want to wish him Happy Birthday on his 11th birthday on March 9. “Because of Colin's disabilities, social skills are not easy for him, and he often acts out in school, and the other kids don't like him,” his mother wrote. “So when I asked him if he wanted a party for his birthday, he said there wasn't a point because he has no friends.”
She then decided to just create the page so people could wish him happy birthday. Little did she know that it would get picked up by national media. The page now has 1.2 million likes and people are sending her mail. Just yesterday, she posted a picture of letters she has received, noting that Colin still doesn’t know about the Facebook page.
Jennifer told Good Morning America that she was surprised to learn that parents were actually trying to move their children out of Colin’s classes and a teacher told him about that. “His peers don’t understand him but every adult who meets him loves him so I thought I would go to a place where adults and my friends are, Facebook, and have them write nice messages to Colin so I could share them on his birthday,” she said.
She explained that Colin suffers from a condition that is like Asperger’s syndrome, which makes it difficult for him to communicate. But the outpouring of support on Facebook has proved to Jennifer that people do care.
“I’m so completely overwhelmed,” she told GMA. “A woman today sent me $200 on PayPal to take him to dinner and I heard from someone with the Corvette industry who said they’re going to send a car to take Colin to school the day after his birthday.”