On March 26, 2020, Jeff Lillie, the Mayor of Earlham, received a call from a friend, who told him that there was a donor that was interested in donating money to the residents of the small town.
Each house in Earlham, which has a population of 1450 people, got the gift cards.
The donor, who wants to keep their identity as a secret, said that they will be buying 100 gift cards from 3 local businesses.
One hour later, the owner said the donor will be bumping up the numbers to 250, and one hour later, the owner said they will be donating 500 cards.
Mayor Lillie said:
“I said to him, at 500, you’re darn near giving a gift card to every single household in Earlham. When I told him there were 549 households in town, he said ‘Done.’ And that was it. I was ecstatic because it made sure everyone would get a card.”
One thing Mayor Lillie did not know was that the donor had more plans in mind.
The Donor ended up buying 549 gift cards from each of the 3 businesses. So in total, they donated a total of $82,350 USD, which means each business made a total of over $27000.
One week later after the purchases were made, every person in town woke up to their mailbox full of gift cards.
An envelope containing a letter from the city and 3 $50 gift cards to West Side Bar and Grille, Hometown Market, a grocery store, and Trostel’s Broken Branch, a restaurant and coffee shop.
The donation reportedly overwhelmed everyone in the town.
Some people in the town had been laid off from their jobs, so the gift gave them a reason to smile.
During an interview with CNN, Mayor Lillie said:
“It came at the end of a couple really hard weeks. I remember going home and walking through the front door, and I couldn’t speak for a minute. I was just crying like a baby, and my little boy saw me and wrapped around my leg and said, ‘Daddy what’s wrong?’ And eventually I was able to choke it out: ‘Buddy, right now, for once, nothing’s wrong.’”
The best thing about this news is that the donor decided to keep his identity as secret.