In elementary school, lots of students had pen pals, where students would write letters back and forth to each other.
This pair of Indiana and Ohio pen pals has a unique twist to their story.
It's right before Christmas break in 1994, 8-year-old Ethan receives a letter from his pen pal.
There was something else sent with the letter.
"He sent this fantastic Christmas ornament," says Anna Gillio, an Indiana resident and Ethan's girlfriend.
This ornament had a picture of 8-year-old Brian from St. Marys, Ohio.
For the past 24 years, Brian's ornament has managed to make it onto Ethan's family Christmas tree.
"Every year, he would put it up on the tree and after a while, his mom got really tired of it so she'd take it down and hide it in the back or throw it away and he would always get it and put it back up prominently on the tree and so over the years, the rest of the family started defending Brian and he has obtained protected ornament status," says Gillio.
With the holidays so close, Anna has come up with a Christmas present for Ethan that involves some searching.
She is looking to Brian.
"My goal for Ethan this Christmas was to do something memorable and meaningful and I thought it would be really funny if we could get an updated ornament or a card from Brian and do that as a gift as a surprise for Ethan," Gillio mentions.
This isn't Anna's first attempt at finding Brian.
"Ethan had posted about this on Reddit in hopes of finding Brian. Just because we think this is so funny. It was on the funny subreddit for less than a day," Gillio says. "It had gotten to be the third most popular post in that subreddit because it had got over 12,000 upvotes and then one of the administrators said there was no attempt at humor and took it down."
However, it hasn't been very easy putting a man to a 24-year-old picture.
When asked if the couple knew anything about this man, Gillio's response was, "Literally nothing. Hopefully, we're hoping that he finds this to be as funny as we do."
This ornament has become part of a special Christmas tradition all because of a pen pal exchange in elementary school.
"Ethan wants to put it on the tree every year probably because it's a victory for Brian."
Anna's thoughts on Ethan's reaction if she finds Brian was, "I think he'd be thrilled. Absolutely thrilled to have like an updated Brian ornament. Brian, if you're out there. Please help me give Ethan a nice funny gift this Christmas."
Anna set up an email to anyone who might know anything about Brian.
You can email her at helpmefindbrian@gmail.com.
