Monday, 3rd December 2012
LEGO MAKES A BOYS DREAM COME TRUE - 10 year old James Groccia of West Boylston, Massachusetts is like any other boy who likes to play with his toys, but James’s real passion is LEGO.
James, who has Asperger’s syndrome, set his heart on the expensive Emerald Night Train set when he was just 8 years of age but the LEGO set was $100, something that was not really in the household budget at the time and so his parents decided now was a good time for James to learn the value of money and suggested that James should save his allowance, birthday money and Christmas money to buy one. So strong was James’s desire to own the Emerald Night Train he set about saving every cent he could lay his hands on and 2 years later he had reached his goal of saving the $100 price tag.
LEGO Fan No.1
His mother set about trying to buy one but unfortunately LEGO had stopped production and the only places where the Emerald Night Train could now be purchased was from collector sites and places like eBay. The only problem was that the average asking price was over $250 as this LEGO set was now deemed a collector’s item.
James was heartbroken. His parents did buy him another LEGO set and while he played with and enjoyed it his mind heart was still on the Emerald Train set.
James decided there was only one thing left to do and that was to write to LEGO and see if they had one available to buy. The letter was a heartfelt message for the people at LEGO and they pulled out their resources in order to make one young man’s dream come true. The video below gives a full account of the letter that James sent and the reply that LEGO gave.
As I write this I can fully appreciate and understand James’s passion for LEGO. When I was a child my parents would always buy me LEGO for my Birthday’s and Christmas and I was always thrilled with them. I had buckets full of LEGO bricks and complete sets of Fire Stations, Hospitals and all manner of cars and other LEGO sets. It was a complete joy and one that I look back on with very fond memories - for me the ultimate gift was always LEGO.
It just goes to show you that some companies really do value their customers and in my book LEGO deserves full recognition for going out of its way to make on young guy a very, very happy person.
Well Done LEGO!
