Response To Bangor Birthday Girl Has Been ‘Amazing And Overwhelming’
Hallee Sorenson of Bangor soon will turn 19 years old, and the days leading up to her birthday are some she's sure to remember.
Hallee's mom, Alyssa Seel-Sorenson, on Thursday estimated that they've received close to 100,000 birthday cards from well-wishers throughout the world.
"We have totes stacked four across and six tall with fully half the garage lost to us ... but for such a great reason, " Seel-Sorenson said.
The cards have come in response to Hallee's cousin's Facebook post showing Hallee sitting alone at her 18th birthday party at a local bowling alley after no one showed up to help her celebrate. The post, which has been shared more than 230,000 times, asked people to send cards to Hallee this year to help erase that memory.
The family has been flooded with gifts, too. So many, in fact, that the family has been making daily runs to donate the gifts to local nursing homes and the Ronald McDonald House.
But with internet fame comes a lot of attention. On Thursday, Hallee's aunt, who lives in Texas, asked (via a post on the Hallee's 19th Birthday Facebook page) that people refrain from visiting the family's Bangor home, the address of which was provided so people could send cards:
Again, I don't want any of you in any way to think that your love and good wishes are unappreciated or that the family is ungrateful. I'd just ask from my quiet perch here in Texas (2300 anxious miles away from my sister's) that you please respect Hallee and her family's safety, privacy and peace of mind in their own home and yard.
Seel-Sorenson said she knows most of the visitors mean well, but they are a little concerned about people showing up at the door. The outpouring of support, she said "has been amazing and overwhelming and a little bit scary at times."