[Vision2020] For Those Who Missed The Story

[Saundra Lund]

This story has restored -- at least somewhat -- my faith that there are
still some Really Good People in the world, something I sometimes lose sight
of when listening to politicians.  I hope this story helps us ALL remember
how each of us have the ability to make profound differences in the lives of
people we don't know.  I recommend having some tissue handy :*-)
Personally, I'm very grateful for the reminder of earthly angels.

SL

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45691541

Anonymous donors pay off Kmart layaway accounts

WSMV-TV 
updated 12/15/2011 8:46:23 PM ET

By MARGERY A. BECK 
Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - The young father stood in line at the Kmart layaway
counter, wearing dirty clothes and worn-out boots. With him were three small
children.
 
He asked to pay something on his bill because he knew he wouldn't be able to
afford it all before Christmas. Then a mysterious woman stepped up to the
counter.
 
"She told him, 'No, I'm paying for it,'" recalled Edna Deppe, assistant
manager at the store in Indianapolis. "He just stood there and looked at her
and then looked at me and asked if it was a joke. I told him it wasn't, and
that she was going to pay for him. And he just busted out in tears."
 
At Kmart stores across the country, Santa seems to be getting some help:
Anonymous donors are paying off strangers' layaway accounts, buying the
Christmas gifts other families couldn't afford, especially toys and
children's clothes set aside by impoverished parents.
 
Before she left the store Tuesday evening, the Indianapolis woman in her
mid-40s had paid the layaway orders for as many as 50 people. On the way
out, she handed out $50 bills and paid for two carts of toys for a woman in
line at the cash register.
 
"She was doing it in the memory of her husband who had just died, and she
said she wasn't going to be able to spend it and wanted to make people happy
with it," Deppe said. The woman did not identify herself and only asked
people to "remember Ben," an apparent reference to her husband.

Deppe, who said she's worked in retail for 40 years, had never seen anything
like it.
 
"It was like an angel fell out of the sky and appeared in our store," she
said.
 
Most of the donors have done their giving secretly.
 
Dona Bremser, an Omaha nurse, was at work when a Kmart employee called to
tell her that someone had paid off the $70 balance of her layaway account,
which held nearly $200 in toys for her 4-year-old son.
 
"I was speechless," Bremser said. "It made me believe in Christmas again."
 
Dozens of other customers have received similar calls in Nebraska, Michigan,
Iowa, Indiana and Montana.
 
The benefactors generally ask to help families who are squirreling away
items for young children. They often pay a portion of the balance, usually
all but a few dollars or cents so the layaway order stays in the store's
system.

The phenomenon seems to have begun in Michigan before spreading, Kmart
executives said.
 
"It is honestly being driven by people wanting to do a good deed at this
time of the year," said Salima Yala, Kmart's division vice president for
layaway.
 
The good Samaritans seem to be visiting mainly Kmart stores, though a
Wal-Mart spokesman said a few of his stores in Joplin, Mo., and Chicago have
also seen some layaway accounts paid off.
 
Kmart representatives say they did nothing to instigate the secret Santas or
spread word of the generosity. But it's happening as the company struggles
to compete with chains such as Wal-Mart and Target.
 
Kmart may be the focus of layaway generosity, Yala said, because it is one
of the few large discount stores that has offered layaway year-round for
about four decades. Under the program, customers can make purchases but let
the store hold onto their merchandise as they pay it off slowly over several
weeks.

The sad memories of layaways lost prompted at least one good Samaritan to
pay off the accounts of five people at an Omaha Kmart, said Karl Graff, the
store's assistant manager.
 
"She told me that when she was younger, her mom used to set up things on
layaway at Kmart, but they rarely were able to pay them off because they
just didn't have the money for it," Graff said.
 
He called a woman who had been helped, "and she broke down in tears on the
phone with me. She wasn't sure she was going to be able to pay off their
layaway and was afraid their kids weren't going to have anything for
Christmas."
 
"You know, 50 bucks may not sound like a lot, but I tell you what, at the
right time, it may as well be a million dollars for some people," Graff
said.
 
Graff's store alone has seen about a dozen layaway accounts paid off in the
last 10 days, with the donors paying $50 to $250 on each account.
 
"To be honest, in retail, it's easy to get cynical about the holidays,
because you're kind of grinding it out when everybody else is having family
time," Graff said. "It's really encouraging to see this side of Christmas
again."

Lori Stearnes of Omaha also benefited from the generosity of a stranger who
paid all but $58 of her $250 layaway bill for toys for her four youngest
grandchildren.
 
Stearnes said she and her husband live paycheck to paycheck, but she plans
to use the money she was saving for the toys to help pay for someone else's
layaway.
 
In Missoula, Mont., a man spent more than $1,200 to pay down the balances of
six customers whose layaway orders were about to be returned to a Kmart
store's inventory because of late payments.
 
Store employees reached one beneficiary on her cellphone at Seattle
Children's Hospital, where her son was being treated for an undisclosed
illness.
 
"She was yelling at the nurses, 'We're going to have Christmas after all!'"
store manager Josine Murrin said.
 
A Kmart in Plainfield Township, Mich., called Roberta Carter last week to
let her know a man had paid all but 40 cents of her $60 layaway.

Carter, a mother of eight from Grand Rapids, Mich., said she cried upon
hearing the news. She and her family have been struggling as she seeks a
full-time job.
 
"My kids will have clothes for Christmas," she said.
 
Angie Torres, a stay-at-home mother of four children under the age of 8, was
in the Indianapolis Kmart on Tuesday to make a payment on her layaway bill
when she learned the woman next to her was paying off her account.
 
"I started to cry. I couldn't believe it," said Torres, who doubted she
would have been able to pay off the balance. "I was in disbelief. I hugged
her and gave her a kiss."
 
___
 
Associated Press writers Michael J. Crumb in Des Moines, Iowa; Matt Volz, in
Helena, Mont.; and Jeff Karoub in Detroit contributed to this report.