After a California man with Down syndrome lost his beloved movie collection in a raging fire over the weekend, the public stepped up in a big way to help him replace hundreds of DVDs.
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Mark Orsillo, 34, was left crushed after most of his 300-movie collection — as well as his home — were destroyed in fires that have been raging in Oroville, California, KTXL-TV reported.
Realizing how sad Orsillo was over losing his collection, his sister, Danielle Devine, turned to Facebook to ask for help in restoring his DVDs. In fact, she published a post on July 10 that sparked hundreds of comments and donations.
“This is my brother Mark and he has Down Syndrome. He lost his house to the #wallfire on my parent’s property. He is an OCD movie collector and lost hundreds of movies,” she wrote. “He spends most of his free time watching, organizing and talking about his movies. This is very hard for him.”
Divine went on to ask if people would be willing to either send or drop off movies — used or new — to her brother, listing specific films and TV series that she wanted to replace in his collection. It didn’t take too long for people to plow through those titles, pledging to give her brother each and every missing film. The response left Divine elated.
“WOW! YOU HAVE DONATED SO MANY MOVIES! THANK YOU SO MUCH!” she wrote in an update. “At this point we have gotten over 300 dvds! Wow!”
Divine concluded her post by noting that people who still want to help out can send gift cards to help Orsillo get clothing; she also thanked those who responded for their “outpouring of love.”
“My family can’t put into words how grateful we are,” she wrote.
Orsillo, too, is pretty elated to be getting his movie and TV show collection back. His favorite film, he said, is “Rudy,” as he likes the movie’s “happy ending.”
“I’m really happy,” he told KTXL-TV. “Danielle said those movies are in the mail right now.”