Beginning in the fourth grade, 30-year-old Rosie Paulik grew up with something magical in her mailbox: a handwritten letter from her father, Buz Ecker, every single day.
Over the years, those notes piled up into more than 3,500 letters, filled with stories about his Ph.D. classes, his pride at her career milestones, and even his favorite Subway sandwich. “Sometimes during the letters, my mom will talk to him out loud when he’s writing and he’ll write, ‘Hold on, she’s talking to me,’ and she stops talking and then he gets back into the letter,” Paulik laughed.
Each one came with a dash of humor, often a dad joke, that made the letters feel like “a hug, but on paper.”
Now, Ecker’s gift has grown beyond his daughter. In July, after noticing her father seemed “aimless” following the completion of his doctorate, Paulik had an idea. “I wonder if complete strangers would want to receive a letter from him,” she thought.
So, she posted on TikTok. The response was overwhelming: more than 1,200 requests poured in from people across the world. And just like that, The Dad Letter Project was born, described on its website as “mail that’ll make you smile (or cry, in a good way).”
“People wanted to hear from a dad. They wanted to hear from a father figure,” Paulik told ABC News. Some are grieving, some just want a bad joke, and one West Virginia teacher even asked for her third graders to have a new pen pal.
Ecker, now 67, spends his mornings in Naubinway, Michigan, writing about 10 letters a day. “I address the problems that they have as best as I can. I’m honored that they write me, and I’m happy to write them back,” he said.
To keep up with the growing demand, Paulik brought on three additional “Dad Staff Writers.” Together, they’re making sure every request, whether from Italy, the U.K., Hawaii, or right here in the U.S., gets answered. “Sometimes, you just need a dad to remind you that you’re doing great, to offer unsolicited life advice, or to tell you a joke so bad you have no choice but to laugh,” the project’s website says.
Requests can be submitted online, where people share what they’d like their letter to focus on. Each dad funds the postage and stamps themselves. And though the requests have been “inundating,” Paulik says they’ll continue because of the “big need that we’re tapping into.”
For Paulik, the magic is in the simplicity. “I have grown so accustomed to AI recently and I think these dads bring a level of authenticity into this world. So many people don’t receive anything in the mailbox besides maybe coupons and bills. They are coming up with words to say for you, they’re putting the address on the envelope, putting a stamp on it and sending it out. It’s so authentic and special,” she said.
Even now, Paulik’s 2-year-old son receives his own letters from grandpa, a tradition of love, humor, and heart that’s now spreading to thousands more, one stamp at a time.
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