@@facebook=
@@
The spirit of Christmas giving has spread from anonymous donors paying off store layaway accounts to strangers taking care of overdue utility bills in a showing of holiday kindness.
The donors, dubbed “layaway angels,” have settled the remaining balances of layaway accounts at area Walmart, Kmart, Target and Meijer stores, said Tracy Stanfield, manager of the Walmart store on Wilmington Pike in Sugarcreek Twp.
“We’ve actually been overwhelmed by them,” Stanfield said. Her store saw two to three such donors daily in the five days leading up to the Dec. 16 deadline for layaway items to be paid in full and picked up, she said.
On Monday, an anonymous man brought $500 to Montgomery County Water Services and paid off the balances for three residents who were due to have their water shut off because they were behind in their bills, said Cathy Petersen, a county spokeswoman.
“It was such a wonderful gesture,” Petersen said.
The water customers who benefitted from the holiday generosity were notified by phone. “I hear that it was incredibly emotional and there were some tears,” Petersen said.
One of the residents was an older man in a “dire situation” because his veteran’s benefits had not yet arrived, Petersen said. Another person thought it was a joke and called back to Water Services to make sure that it was real.
Nearly 15 “angels” visited the Sugarcreek Walmart and spent an average of $200 each, with some helping multiple families, Stanfield said. They paid off customers’ layaway accounts that had mostly toy items, not electronics, she said.
Stanfield said most donors asked to remain anonymous and wanted to help families with children.
The Walmart stores in Moraine and Miamisburg also saw donors paying off strangers’ layaway accounts, store managers said.
“They said they just wanted to help someone in the Christmas spirit,” said Kim White, a manager at the Walmart on Kingsridge Drive in Miamisburg.
The random acts of kindness started earlier this month at Kmart stores in Michigan and have since spread to other retailers across Ohio and the nation.
Kmart store managers in Trotwood, Fairborn, Beavercreek and Riverside said last week that unknown visitors were acting as secret Santas and spending hundreds of dollars to cover the layaway bills of strangers, especially people who were late on their payments or in danger of having their orders canceled.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2419 or dlarsen@DaytonDailyNews.com. Staff writer Cornelius Frolik contributed to this story.
About the Author