By John Vibes | Truth Theory
An anonymous good samaritan has come up with a clever way to help local businesses stay afloat while also giving their neighbors a nice gift during this difficult time. In the small Iowa town of Earlham, an anonymous donor contacted the town’s mayor, Jeff Lillie and told him that they were interested in doing something to help boost the local economy.
In their first conversation, the donor told the mayor that they planned on purchasing 100 gift cards from local businesses to be given to residents of the town. The donor then called back later and suggested that they would be willing to give away up to 500 gift cards. Lillie told the donor that there were only 549 households in the entire town, and they decided to give a gift card to every household in the town.
“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,” Lillie told CNN.
Each gift card was for $150, and with a total of 549 cards purchased, that is a total donation of $82,350. Three local businesses were selected, and each received about $27,000.
The idea behind this effort is that struggling businesses will be able to get much-needed income now, and residents of the town can have a gift for the future when everything opens back up. Hopefully, these funds will be used to keep the employees paid, in addition to keeping the businesses alive.
