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: Christmas
Watch This NFL Player Treat Deserving Kids to a Holiday Shopping Spree
A group of Houston kids saw their Christmas wishes come true earlier this December when football player Andre Johnson surprised them with his annual toy giveaway.
With a shopping cart and some Houston Texans cheerleaders for assistance, the kids were given 80 seconds (Johnson’s jersey number) to tear through a Toys “R” Us for whatever toy they wanted.
The athlete started his touching annual tradition in 2007 to spread some holiday cheer to local children. This year, the 11 deserving recipients were from the Harris County Department of Family Protective Services and ranged in ages 8 to 16.
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To top it off, as he explains in the video below, the kids didn’t need to worry about accessing a goody, such as an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3, locked in a glass case since each one was going to receive whichever game system they wanted, plus a couple of games.
The final bill this year set Johnson back a cool $16,266.26. According to ESPN, his credit card company called him to make sure the purchase was legit (although they should probably come to expect the annual spending spree since he spent $17,352 last year and $19,000 the year before that).
“I just enjoy doing it,” Johnson tells the sports network. “… I always felt like if I was ever to make it, I wanted to give back. You go through stuff as a kid growing up. You understand certain situations. I understand some of the things these kids go through.”
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This Is Probably the Smartest Thing You Can Do Every Christmas
Nothing says Christmas like the piney fragrance of a beautifully decorated fir, pine or spruce.
But not to be a total Grinch, these noble evergreens don’t have it so easy when the holidays come around. Christmas trees, as writer Meghan Walsh points out on OZY, are basically bred to be cut down and sent to the curb after a few weeks. And for any Christmas lover/eco-conscious person alike, that just seems like a big waste.
Alongside the mountains of dead trees that pile up each year, Christmas trees (real or fake) cost a pretty penny. The website pointed out that just last year, Americans purchased 33 million real trees to a cost of $1.16 billion, and 14.7 million plastic ones at $1.19 billion.
These winter icons deserve much more respect, and that’s why in 2008, Scott “Scotty Claus” Martin decided to start The Living Christmas Company in Los Angeles so customers could simply rent a tree and have it delivered right to their doorstep. After Christmas is over, the trees are picked up and go straight back to the nursery.
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Fans of ABC’s “Shark Tank” might remember that two years ago, Martin’s genius idea got a $140,000 investment from billionaire Mark Cuban for a 40 percent stake in the company. Martin was also recently featured in the series’ “Success Stories” segment during its 100th episode, during which he explains how his company has since grossed half a million dollars after Cuban’s investment and is projected to reach $300,000 after the holiday season.
Additionally, according to the OZY report, the Living Christmas Company has recently expanded operations in Northern California after Dean Rafini, a Bay Area firefighter, fell in love with the idea.
Only NorCal and SoCal residents can rent trees from the company, but for those of you who’d also like to cut down on Christmas tree waste, consider buying a potted evergreen and planting in your yard after the holidays (click here for tips) instead of buying a cut tree.
You Can Help Send a Soldier Home for the Holidays
There’s no place like home for the holidays, especially for America’s military service members, whose time off is never guaranteed. Veteran Ernie Stewart knows this first-hand. The first holiday season that Stewart was in the Air Force, his father sprung for a $600 plane ticket home after he received last-minute leave. Fast-forward to 2002, and Stewart decided to pay it forward by soliciting donations from friends and family to purchase airfare for a few soldiers to see their families over the holidays. The response was overwhelming. In just a few weeks, Stewart had raised more than $13,000, enough to fly 28 soldiers home. This year, Stewart’s organization, Let’s Bring ’Em Home, has already booked 122 flights for service members stationed around the world after receiving more than $80,000 in donations and half a million frequent flyer miles, making the holidays happier for our men and women in uniform.