Wouldn’t it be nice to wake up and find $150 in your mailbox? Well, that’s what happened to residents in Earlham Iowa.
Each of the 549 households in town received three $50 gift cards to local businesses from an anonymous donor.
An act of kindness that was meant to both feed local residents and support local businesses.
Mayor Jeff Lillie got a call on March 26 from someone saying they wanted to help the local economy in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic.
Lillie said he was “completely overwhelmed” by the gesture knowing how many businesses were shuttered, people had been laid off, and were struggling.
“It came at the end of a couple really hard weeks,” Lillie told CNN.
The donor offered to purchase 100 $50 giftcards to the local grocery store Hometown Market and West Side Bar.
Lillie also mentioned another restaurant named Trostel’s Broken Branch.
So, the generous donor agreed to pay for 250 sets of cards to each of the three businesses.
Later that day, the donor called back and upped the number of cards to 500.
When Lillie told him that this amount was almost enough for every household in town, the donor asked him how many more they would need to hit that number.
It was then decided that 549 sets of cards valid for $50 at each of the three restaurants would be purchased and disbursed to each household in town.
“(There are) bad things that have been happening,” Lillie told Des Moines Register. “As the mayor of a small town, making the decision to close our community centers and city hall and our library and all of the other bad decisions that we’ve been forced to make — and then here’s this really great thing. It just tore down my walls.”
Lillie was overwhelmed with emotion by this gesture of kindness.
“I remember going home and walking through the front door, and I couldn’t speak for a minute,” he said. “I was just crying like a baby, and my little boy saw me and wrapped around my leg and said, ‘Daddy what’s wrong?’”
https://www.facebook.com/earlhamecho/photos/p.872430363230108/872430363230108/?type=1&theater
“And eventually I was able to choke it out: ‘Buddy, right now, for once, nothing’s wrong.’”
City staff then spent the next two days stuffing envelopes with gift cards and a letter explaining why the cards were being sent.
Lillie wanted to share the joyful news but kept it a secret so it would be a nice surprise.
“That was the longest two days ever,” Lillie said.
Since Trostel’s Broken Branch was a new restaurant, they didn’t even have gift cards.
They had to buy some on Amazon.
https://www.facebook.com/earlhamecho/photos/pcb.872431066563371/872430456563432/?type=3&theater
“You couldn’t even believe what was happening,” the restaurant owner’s wife, Jennifer Trostel, said. “You were so grateful you started to cry. You couldn’t believe that people would actually want to help you in such a huge way that you can’t even fathom that kind of help.”
Each restaurant received about $27,000 from its gift card sales for a total of $82,000.
“Nobody has a lot to smile about the last few weeks, and this is definitely something to smile about,” he said. “There’s a lot of families that $150 isn’t going to be a game-changer, but it’s still something to make you feel good that there’s good people in the world that are doing good things.
“It gives you some hope.”
Lillie still doesn’t know who the anonymous donor is. But if he did, and social distancing wasn’t a concern, he would like to give this person a hug.
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