MIDDLESEX TWP — Sean Tracey, 12, has contagious enthusiasm and an unparalleled passion for newspapers.

“Since 2010, Sean has been interested in sports, which is actually more of an obsession, that branched into the fascination with newspapers,” explained Sean's mother, Linda Tracey of Middlesex Township.

“He loves scores and numbers and different teams and athletes and names of sports venues. All types of sports, all types of play, from high school to professional,” she said.

Several months ago, Sean, a student in the sixth grade at the Clarence Brown School, expressed the desire to read a newspaper from every state. A teaching assistant decided to encourage him and made him a map.

“Sean and I started this in February just to see how many papers we could get,” said Jodi Snyder, a teaching assistant from Butler Township.

Snyder contacted many of her friends and family and was the source of a great number of the papers he received.

“Miss Jodi gave me a map and stickers in February. Everyone at Clarence Brown called their family and friends to send me papers,” Sean said.

After that, each day was an adventure for Sean, who was excited with the daily mail delivery.

One day a bin full of 24 newspapers from 11 different states arrived. “Seeing the excitement on Sean's face was worth millions,” said Snyder, who was astounded by the rapid success of the project.

Sean suffers from a vision impairment that requires medical treatment.

“Sean has benign tumors on his optic nerve, which causes low vision that can't be corrected with glasses. Sean is on chemotherapy, which helps to shrink the tumors but only helps to keep his vision from getting worse,” explained his mother.

A sense of urgency to reach the goal of reading a newspaper from every state in the United States was created by his fear of losing even more of his sight.

This urgency was expressed to his aide, Jenn Walker of Buffalo Township.

“With his parents' permission, I put a picture of his map on my Facebook page in early March. It was shared almost 300 times,” said Walker.

For more than a month papers poured into her post office box and continue to trickle in. Within two months, Sean had newspapers from every state and his map was complete.

“It was exciting to see him grow closer to his goal daily. The entire class was into it,” said Walker.

To date, Sean has received more than 200 newspapers from all over the country, and he is thrilled.

“I hugged them. I was so happy. I am still surprised that people I don't even know would spend their money and family time to send me a newspaper,” he said. “There are so many people who helped me fill my whole map. When I think about them, I get happy tears.”

Not only does Sean have the papers to commemorate his goal, but a special token as well. “When I got all 50 states, Jacob Miller from Butler Vo-Tech made a frame for my map,” Sean said.

Though his favorite part of any newspaper to read is the sports section, he enjoyed learning about things going on across the country.

He also enjoyed the cards that accompanied the papers.

“A lot of people sent cards or notes. I felt extremely happy that people would write. They would tell me things about their hometown and wish me good luck on my project,” said Sean, who tried to write thank-yous back to every address he had.

“I was amazed at how committed he was to write a thank-you note to each person who sent him a paper or did something to help him,” said Walker. “Some days he would stop his work and look at me and say 'I can't believe people I don't even know would care enough to help me get my goal of all 50 states.'”

His family was delighted with the response and with what it means to Sean.

“I think it is great to set goals and find achievement in doing so,” said his mother.

“Sean came into an exciting way to hear from others around the United States, and things going on in other states, as well as 'well wishes' that helped him enjoy his collection and reach his goal,” she added.

Sean has a new goal of collecting a newspaper from each country in the world. He has 22 countries so far.

He doesn't care if the paper is in a different language, he can still find the sports section.

To be a part of this project, the address for sending international papers for Sean's collection is: P.O. Box 68, Sarver, PA 16055.