This holiday season, anonymous Good Samaritans stepped up to help families in need from coast to coast. These men and women, called “layaway angels,” plunked down large sums of cash at their local retailers to pay off the layaway account balances for total strangers.
In Bellingham, Mass. Toys R Us, a generous woman paid off every single layaway balance to the tune of $20,000, local TV station Fox 25 reports. “I have no words. I can’t believe someone would do that, it’s so nice,” Diane Brewer, a mom from Mendon who was working extra shifts to pay for presents for her son, tells the station. “I have been running around all week picking up layaways everywhere, so this is really awesome.”
At an Oldsmar, Fla. Walmart, one man (later identified as John Sanders of Jamson Labs & Power Kleen Corporation) gave $12,000 to clear the layaway balances for 55 customers, according to Fox 13. “Our theory was if people had it on layaway, they were maybe struggling a little bit for the holidays,” Sanders says.
MORE: They Helped Him Enjoy Christmas When He Was Poor. Now He’s Helping Them.
The Consumerist notes that this touching trend kicked off in 2011 after a California man dropped $16,000 to pay off layaway balances for local families. This season, Secret Santas have also popped up in places such as Cleveland; Iowa City, Iowa; Mechanicsburg, Pa.; Chiefland, Fla. and nearby in Lake City, Fla.; where a generous donor paid a whopping $59,000 to clear 300 accounts at a local Walmart.
Even NFL player Tim Tebow is joining in on the good cheer. The Atlanta Journal Constitution writes that the quarterback teamed up with “Good Morning America” to surprise shoppers for a whole week.
“You don’t understand how hard I’ve been working,” Damara Jarrett said after Tebow paid off her $701 tab. “And then I said I was going to take stuff off [the account] because I can’t afford everything, and then this. Just thank you. I just want to cry.”
With the type of news that’s been dominating the headlines, it’s truly wonderful to see something positive that’s sweeping the country.
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Tag: children’s toys
The Normal Barbie Makes Its Debut
Eight months ago, a fashion doll boasting “realistic” proportions made headlines. Modeled after the average 19-year-old American woman, Lammily was dubbed the “Normal Barbie” for not having the mutant measurements of the iconic doll from our childhoods.
After a successful crowdsourcing campaign, Lammily is finally here, with optional acne and all (more on that later). But will kids actually like her?
Lammily creator Nickolay Lamm decided to present his new doll to a second grade classroom in Pennsylvania. And no surprise, the doll was a hit.
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“I like her!”
“She looks like my sister.”
“She looks like she’s a regular girl going to school.”
The students also noticed Lammily’s feet can bend and look more realistic, unlike Barbie’s perma-arched toosties that wouldn’t support the weight of her body.
“I wanted to show that reality is cool,” Lamm tells TIME. “And a lot of toys make kids go into fantasy, but why don’t they show real life is cool? It’s not perfect, but it’s really all we have. And that’s awesome.”
MORE: These Women Invented a Toy That Truly Includes Every Child
Instead of high heels, a tiny hairbrush, or a pink convertible, this doll comes with much more interesting accessories. Plus, you can buy a reusable sticker pack to give Lammily some cellulite, scrapes, stitches, scars, freckles, acne and many other real-life distinctions. Lamm emphasizes to TIME that he wasn’t trying to promote an image of violence, “Look, we all get boo boos and scratches. Life isn’t perfect, we all sometimes fall down but we get back up.”
Barbie’s impossible looks, size and even her career choices have been analyzed (and criticized) for decades, but it does seem lately that the 55-year-old doll has lost her edge. Barbie sales plunged 21 percent compared to the same time last year, according to the Washington Post, as young girls are gravitating towards Mattel’s Monster High dolls, Disney’s “Frozen” line, as well as games on tablets and smartphones. None of these toys look realistic either, so girls don’t necessarily prefer toys that look more like them, but they do go for what’s popular and what their friends are playing with.
That’s why there should always be space on the shelf for toys like Lammily, so we can teach more children that average is beautiful and flaws are perfectly normal.
Lammily is available for purchase on this website.
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LEGO Gets All the Attention, But This Toy Is Even Better at Developing Creativity
Move over, LEGO. Another classic toy is having a renaissance.
Colorful, flexible, and distinctly smelly — Play-Doh has been praised by The Atlantic’s CityLab as “a toy that encourages creative building like Lego, but does it even better.”
As we previously mentioned, some educators argue that since children derive such great benefits from the arts, STEM (for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) should be changed to STEAM (the A stands for arts), to highlight the importance of creative endeavors.
LEGOs have often been considered the STEM toy of choice, but the blocky pieces only fit into rigid angles and can’t change color. The beauty of Play-Doh is how it can create curves, textures and can be mixed into different hues. The possibilities with the squishy dough are truly endless — not to mention that it’s also much less painful to step on in the middle of the night.
MORE: These Women Invented a Toy That Truly Includes Every Child
When used in the classroom or home, the colorful clay can be molded into body parts and organs (check out the awesome ear canal this girl made) or even be used to create electrical circuits. The toy’s manufacturer, Hasbro, even has a 3-D Play-Doh printer on the market.
Another bonus with Play-Doh, as CityLab notes, is how it’s gender-neutral. When it comes to the plastic blocks however, the kits are distinctly marketed to boys (secret agents, dragons, spaceships and robots) or girls (cutesy animals, dream houses, beauty parlors).
It’s unclear if Play-Doh sales have increased due to the emphasis on STEM or STEAM education, but a PR person tells CityLab they’ve shipped one billion cans in the past five years.
@MondayBlogs Conducting electrical circuits with play-doh http://t.co/i7M3LW5Zf1 #STEM #WomeninSTEM pic.twitter.com/DxLMQ6pBJI
— lynda williams (@lywilliams132) August 18, 2014
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Playing with Purpose: Toys That Encourage Girl Power
If you want children to change the world, it makes good sense to plant inspiration in something they’re already familiar with: toys.
That’s the strategy new company IAmElemental is taking with a series of action figure toys for girls. Their debut set, which just completed a successful Kickstarter fundraising round, is centered around courage. Each of the action figures within the collection embraces a different aspect of courage, such as bravery, industry and persistence, among others. IAmElemental takes it a step further by assigning each toy an “element” logo from a courage-themed periodic table.
“Our mission is to create toys for play experiences that allow girls to envision themselves as strong, powerful and connected beings at the center of a story of their own making,” write co-founders Julie Kerwin and Dawn Nadeau on their site. “We believe that when we tap into the power that exists inside us all, the extraordinary is always possible.”
The two mothers decided to launch IAmElemental after years of being disappointed by the toy options that lined store shelves, where action heroes and trucks are often reserved for boys, while girls can choose from Barbies and miniature kitchen sets. And they’re certainly not alone: both critics and parents alike have spoken out against sexism in toys, and the manner in which toys are marketed to boys and girls. And while each toy has a character trait assigned to it, Kerwin and Nadeau hope that kids will ultimately create their own superhero storyline to go with each product, and that the toys serve as a launching pad for young children to create their own change in the world.
Kerwin and Nadeau created IAmElemental to fill a void of inspirational action figure toys for girls, but they don’t want their toys to be exclusive to young women. The company is encouraging young girls and boys to submit pictures of themselves holding signs of their own elemental power as a way to spread heroic stories and foster a sense of community around like-minded young children.
Young superheroes can share their pictures and stories here.