With all the stories we see in the news of people calling the cops on each other, political disagreements, and racial tension. Here's a happy story!

It started 60 years ago, my Aunt Lynn was 9. Her Dad, my Grandpa Irv, had grown up in Brooklyn and wanted to share his childhood with his children. One of his great memories was The WONDER WHEEL.

According to Deno's Wonder Wheel website, Charles Hermann designed and built the wheel right on the Coney Island beach, and opened it in 1920. This year Deno's Wonder Wheel celebrates the 100th anniversary of the opening.

The WONDER WHEEL stands 150 feet tall about as tall as a 15 story building. The Wonder Wheel Website describes it as having 24 cars, of which 16 are swinging and 8 are stationary. The thing that makes it different from other Ferris type wheels is the swinging cars slide on a serpentine track towards the hub of the Wheel, and as the Wheel turns they slide back and forth. The other thing is it has a perfect safety record.

Ok, now you know the history. My Mom and Grandma did not want to get on the wheel. So My Grandpa took my Aunt Lynn, and the two of them rode the wheel. My Aunt says she was thrilled and it was special because her Dad wanted to show her the wheel and she wanted to see what it was like. That ride became a great memory that she shared with her father and has always been one of her best memories with him.

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Skip ahead to 2020. My Aunt was thinking of some of the memories and decided to look up the WONDER WHEEL to see if it was still running. She found it on Facebook and saw they were celebrating their 100th anniversary and had shirts they were selling. She wrote to them to buy one and they wrote back to tell her Coney Island Rides were closed, they were selling shirts, but they don't sell over the internet and weren't equipped to send one to her.

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(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
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That's when she told me about wanting a shirt. Let me tell you about my Aunt. She likes to make people happy and makes quilts, blankets, hats, mittens, and many other things for people. She also supports many charities. She also listens to what I talk about and can find the perfect gift. She has made many of my dreams come true among many other things. So, when she told me about wanting a shirt from this place that was an important childhood memory, I had to do something.

I put a post up on Facebook asking if anyone who lived in Brooklyn or near Coney Island could help me out. I had a few people get close, and I wasn't sure it was going to happen. Then my friend Shannon wrote to me and said she had a friend that lived in Brooklyn and may be able to help. She connected us.

Her friend's name was Pamela. I wrote to Pamela and asked if this was possible, Pamela said her car was in the shop and she would help once it was out. A couple days later she said she had her car and was going to get the shirts, what could I tell her. I gave her the location and hours and she showed up on the first day and it was closed. I lost hope, maybe the place closed for the season. I looked on the website, they closed for bad weather. Pamela stuck with it and went the next day for me. They had some shirts so I had her buy two.

Chris Allen
Chris Allen
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I called my Aunt and told her we had two shirts, she was excited. Good news, we have them, bad news, you can't have them I am giving them to you for Christmas, I told her. I want to say thank you to everyone that helped and everyone that offered to help. Special thank you to Pamela who was wonderful and helped fulfill this special request.

Pamela mailed them to me, and I reimbursed her for her help. So thankful that I can give my Aunt Lynn something she wished for, just like she does for me.

The bottom line, I couldn't have done this without everyone coming together to get this done.

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