Let’s call it a simple act of kindness from a WPTV Newschannel 5 viewer to a young girl whose story he saw on Monday.
Alyssa Maiste began making simple bracelets as a way to cope with her chronic pain from Lyme disease. She sent them to other kids just like her all over the county, only to learn most of them never arrived. Sliced open envelopes arrived instead.
We got a call from this viewer last night after our story aired. He’s a man who didn’t want any attention on him. He explained the girl in our story reminded him of his daughter and her love of arts and crafts. He couldn’t just stand by after hearing what happened.
Oftentimes it’s the simplest stories that have the biggest impact.
“It’s not a small little story to my daughter,” said Tiffany Maiste, Alyssa’s mother. “In the grand schemes of things, maybe it is to a lot of people but maybe not everyone as we are seeing here.”
Amazement turned to action on the part of a complete stranger, Efrim Gjonbalaj, the president of Aeroshipper.com.
“It's incredibly heartwarming,” he said. “I saw the story and I was heartbroken. I thought it was horrible thing that happened especially after that act of kindness her daughter performed.”
His company will ship more bracelets free of charge to ensure delivery.
Tiffany Maiste said she talked with someone at the post office in Jupiter, who told her it’s possible the machines split the envelopes even though she said she paid for special stamps to have them not go through the machines. The U.S. Postal Service said they need a day or two to investigate.