The kindness of strangers knows no bounds after one Secret Santa in Pennsylvania gave 200 families an early Christmas gift by paying the layaway gift bills at an Everett Walmart last week, while another made 10 families happy at a New Hudson Walmart store.
200 families benefit from Secret Santa
The first story relates to a Walmart in Everett, where a kind Secret Santa donated around $40,000 to pay off the layaway holiday gifts of approximately 200 families.
Staff at the Walmart store has dubbed him “Santa B,” and say he did a similar thing last year at the same store.
The Huffington Post quotes one parent, Kristen Martin, as saying she had put the Christmas presents for her children on layaway and was touched and amazed to find they had been paid for. She explained how much it meant to her, saying her children will be so happy to receive the gifts. She remembers growing up around Christmas time and had recently told her mother she wanted her kids to have the same experience at Christmas that she always had. Praising the Secret Santa, Martin added that she believes they will have a lot of treasures in heaven.
10 more families experience Christmas joy
As reported by Yahoo News, another Secret Santa recently visited the New Hudson Walmart store with a similar thought in mind. He asked employees which accounts specifically had toys on layaway. According to Walt Blackburn, the assistant store manager, the kind donor paid around 10 accounts, although he did not specify how much this entailed.
Blackburn believes the man said he had been lucky at the casino and wanted to do a good deed in thanks for that. Blackburn added he was specifically looking for layaways involving toys, saying he wanted to give a nice Christmas to the families. This was reportedly the first time it had happened at that particular store, but Blackburn did say it made him feel good, adding it was pretty cool for the Secret Santa to pay off the layaways.
Yahoo News quotes customer Crystal White as saying she started crying when she found out that a kind person had paid off the $300 remaining on her layaway account. She went on to thank the Secret Santa for helping out her family. White said she was still in shock and couldn’t believe this had happened and that she wished she knew the man so she could thank him properly.
Another customer, Katie Pope, said she was in tears when she got the news. She received a call from the customer service manager, telling her she needed to collect her layaway, but Pope told her she still owed around $100. The employee then told Pope someone had paid it for her, and she said she could hardly speak. Apparently, money had been really tight for Pope and she had no idea how to pay off the layaways in time for Christmas without taking out a payday loan, but her problems were solved, thanks to the kindness of a stranger.