9-Year-Old Giants Fan Given 25K Baseball Cards After Losing Collection in Fire

Reese Osterberg, a nine-year-old San Francisco Giants fan, was gifted 25,000 baseball cards after her collection was lost in the Creek wildfire burning in Fresno and Madera counties in California. 

Amy Osterberg, Reese's mom, told Shayna Rubin of the Bay Area News Group her daughter had built a collection of around 200 cards over the past three years, including three showcasing Giants catcher Buster Posey that had become her prized possessions.

"She loves learning about the players," Amy said. "She loves talking about the players."

Reese wrote a letter to Posey after losing her collection, which went viral and caught the attention of Kevin Ashford, a longtime card collector from San Jose.

Ashford originally planned to sell the mountain of cards, but the story changed his mind, per Garvin Thomas of NBC Bay Area.

"I got to thinking about what I had in the garage," Ashford said. "I thought, you know, what if instead of selling them on eBay, I'm going to donate them. I'm gonna donate them all and put a smile on a little girl's face."

Reese is planning to keep some of the cards to restart her collection, but she's hoping to share others with members of the community who've also lost personal items because of the wildfire, her mother told Rubin.

"It would be fun for them to do after everything that's happened," Amy said. "I know for Reese, she's super excited about sharing all of them."

She added the cards have provided a sense of normalcy as the family lives at Reese's grandparents house in wake of losing their home.