Dalton Dingus, Kentucky boy who wished to set Christmas card collection record, dies at 9 years old

SAYLERVILLE, Ky. - Dalton Dingus had one wish for Christmas, to set a world record for the most holiday cards received.

The 9-year-old boy from rural Kentucky died Saturday after a lifelong battle with cystic fibrosis, according to ABCNews.com .

Many of the more than 500,000 cards Dalton received decorated the Bethlehem to Cavalry Apostolic Church in Salyerville, Ky., on Wednesday where funeral services were held, Kathy Smithers, a resident who attended the service told ABCNews.com.

"There were lots and lots of people there," Smithers said in the story. "Members of the police department, and the fire department, and the sheriff. It felt like the whole town was here."

Dalton’s wish to set a Guinness World Record inspired his neighbors and then the world when his goal went viral on Facebook and then was reported by media from as far away as Israel and Ireland, South Dakota and South Korea.

When the cards started pouring in to the Dingus home, neighbors and his family’s church began accepting the mail in order to sort it, according to ABC’s report.

“The cards give him something to look forward to. Something to get excited about," Dalton's mother Jessica Dingus told ABCNews.com before his death.

As far as the Guinness World Record is concerned, the organization reported it had yet to receive a formal application for recognition from the Dingus family.

A spokeswoman for Guinness, Jamie Panas, said she could not speculate whether or not Dalton’s cards would constitute a new record.

The organization does not currently monitor attempts for receiving Christmas cards, though there is a 1992 record in the Guinness Book of World Records for 205,120 cards collected by Canadian Jarrod Booth.

For more on this story, read the original report at abcnews.go.com/US/dalton-dingus-boy-attempted-christmas-card-record-died/story?id=18232432 .