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Sandy Postman Delivers the Gift of Reading to Young Resident

Sep 09, 2015 11:50AM ● By Bryan Scott

By Aimee L. Cook

What began as just a small, simple plea on Facebook has not only gone viral, but has taken the world by storm. From Utah to Germany to Greece and beyond, the story of Ron Lynch, a Sandy City postal carrier, and 12-year-old Matthew Flores has taken on a life of its own. 

Lynch, a city carrier assistant for the post office, does not have a dedicated route yet; he has only been with the post office for about six months.  While delivering mail to an apartment complex on July 26, he was approached by Matthew Flores. Matthew asked Lynch if he had any extra ads he could have. When asked by Lynch why he wanted such mail, Matthew replied, “So I can read them.” 

Thinking that it was an interesting request made by a young boy, Lynch questioned him a bit further. “I asked him why he doesn’t get on the bus and go to the library,” Lynch said. 

“Matthew told me his family couldn’t afford the bus pass. As I was standing thinking of other options for Matthew, my first thought was my children are grown now. I have a few of their books laying around, and I thought I could ask some personal friends and we could get something put together. I put the request on Facebook, thinking maybe I could get a few friends to mail Matthew some books,” he said.

Before he left the complex, Lynch had Matthew get his mother so he could get her permission to give out Matthew’s address, in hopes that some of his friends would see the request and respond by mailing a few books. 

The post was shared, and shared and shared. Within two days, the books began to arrive at Matthew’s doorstep: about 150 books a day. 

Both Lynch and Matthew became celebrities overnight. Lynch began getting friend requests on Facebook from all over the world, and the duo was interviewed on national news and for newspapers. Matthew is still receiving books. Currently, he says he has over 2,000 and is out of room to store them all. 

“I am so happy to have all these books, but at the same time I need to get rid of some. I want to pass them on to other kids who may not have any, either,” Matthew said. “I heard about a library in West Valley that does not have a lot of kids’ books, so I plan on giving them some.”

In less than a month, Matthew has already read seven of his books; his favorite so far is the Captain Underpants series. 

As for Lynch, he says he is just a regular guy who was just paying attention to a young boy’s need.  

“I didn’t do anything amazing,” Lynch said. 

“This kind of attention will not happen to me again, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I can’t dance or sing. This was all very unexpected; I just wanted to help that kid.”