The groom had asked for her hand. The date was set. And the dress had been purchased. Kelly Cays was just an ordinary bride-to-be with a June wedding planned until something happened that shook up her dreams and restored her belief in human kindness.
[ph]
On March 14, Cays of Colorado Springs, Colorado, picked up the wedding dress she’d ordered four months earlier from Danielle’s Bridal Boutique. Here is where the story then deviates from normal into unthinkable territory: Someone stole Cays’s 2006 Jeep Liberty from the parking lot of her apartment complex. But it wasn’t just her wheels that disappeared. So did her wedding dress.
Ten days later, the car turned up abandoned, but the dress was gone. And Cays’s auto insurance didn’t cover the theft.
Relatives had paid for Cays’s $1,800 dress, and she and her fiancé Zach Rose couldn’t afford to replace it. What’s more, they didn’t have four months to wait for a replacement, as their wedding date loomed just three months away. After the Colorado Springs Gazette ran a story on the pilfered dress, people throughout the city stepped up to help.
“So many people offered me their dresses and their stories,” Cays told Stephanie Earls of the Gazette. She still loved her original wedding dress, though, so she contacted the store to see if they could do a rush order. The store agreed, and allowed her to put down only a small deposit, while Cays and Rose hoped they could come up with the rest of the money in time.
They shouldn’t have worried. Sarah Steinmeyer, who works at the dress shop, told Earls that a Good Samaritan came in and anonymously paid for the dress. “It had been a very busy day working on prom when this woman came in and wanted to know if anyone had paid for Kelly Cays’ wedding dress yet. We said, ‘No,’ and she said, ‘I’d like to do that,’ and whipped out her checkbook. I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “We all want to be able to do that someday, just make someone’s day like that.”
Cays describes the act of generosity as a “breath of angelic awesomeness.” It restored Cays’ belief in the goodness of people. “After my car was stolen, I was thinking people are awful. Then throughout this, so many people have helped me and been really sweet and tried to make things easier for me to deal with. There are so many amazing people out there,” said Cays.
Thanks to the people of her community, Cays’s wedding day will be unforgettable.
MORE: What Happened When This World War II Vet’s Home Caught Fire?
Tag: generosity
What’s the Most Generous City in America?
We’ve always been a bit wary of reports that rank cities based on which is “The Most” or “The Best” in some particular way. But a new study published by CreditDonkey.com attempts to discover the 10 most generous cities in the U.S. If you live in one of them, permission granted to be proud.
The study focused on generosity both in terms of time and money. To examine time, the researchers studied 2012 data from the Corporation for National and Community Service. Minneapolis had the highest rate, with 36.7 percent of citizens volunteering.
To examine financial generosity, the site used recent IRS data to show which states’ citizens reported the most charitable contributions. On total dollar contributions, New York won.
In an attempt to weed out what they refer to as a “high lack of generosity,” the researchers used FBI data to look at cities where theft was most rampant. Topping this (unwanted) list? Hammond, Louisiana.
Obviously, this study focused on a narrow form of measurable generosity — after all, community service logs don’t account for daily kindnesses paid to strangers or political activism that results in better working conditions. And tax-reported charitable contributions certainly aren’t the only way to show financial generosity. Even high rates of theft don’t necessarily indicate low generosity; they might simply indicate high rates of poverty.
That said, according to the final rankings, New York City is the most generous of all the American cities. The Big Apple has the highest per capita financial donation rate, and the Food Bank for New York City is the largest anti-hunger charity in the United States. Detroit also made the list, with an average $474 donation per person. Other cities that CreditDonkey lists as generous are Atlanta, Denver, and Dallas.
The next time you’re planning a vacation, perhaps it’s worth checking out one of these generous communities.
There’s Only One Thing This Athlete Wanted More Than a Spot in the Olympics
Twin sisters Lanny and Tracy Barnes of Durango, Colo. have been training for years to make the Olympic biathlon team, perfecting their shooting and cross country skiing skills. In 2006, the sisters qualified for the team and competed in Torino. Only Lanny qualified for the team in 2010 and placed 23rd, the best finish for an America biathlete in 16 years. This year, the twins are 31, and both agreed it would be their last attempt to make the Olympic team. But while Tracy earned a spot, Lanny became ill before the final trials and narrowly missed her chance. It looked like she’d be staying home, until Tracy told her she wanted to give up her own spot on the team, moving Lanny onto it.
“She was sick, and I really felt that she was having a great year,” Tracy told John Meyer of the Denver Post. “I really wanted to see where she could take it…and I felt she deserved to go to Russia.” Tracy plans to be in Sochi to watch her sister compete. Sibling rivalry? Lanny and Tracy Barnes have never heard of it.
What Does a Waitress Have to Do to Earn a $500 Tip?
Before Aaron Collins died in July 2012 at age 30, he wrote a will instructing his family to give money to people in need. Since then, his brother, Seth Collins, has been traveling the country giving $500 tips to waitresses—81 and counting. Seth didn’t plan on giving more than a handful of good tips, but after he took a video of the first waitress receiving hers and posted it on Facebook, people from all over the world began to donate money to keep his kindness crusade going, giving him more than $50,000 to date. Seth is mapping his travels and recording his gift giving on AaronCollins.org.