A Virginia father dumped 80,000 pennies outside his 18-year-old daughter’s house and told her mother it was his final child support payment — but Avery Sanford and her mother decided to turn a bad situation into a good one by donating the $80k to a domestic abuse shelter.
The daughter, Avery, said that her father rented the landscaping trailer and filled it with pennies. Then he pulled up in their driveway and dumped all of them into the street. She said that her mom, Raven Sickal, thought it was just a random stranger doing mischief. When she asked what the man was doing, he shouted, “It’s your final child support payment.”
With the act, Avery said, “It’s not just her that he’d be trying to embarrass. It’s also me, it’s also my sister. And it’s upsetting that he didn’t really consider that before he did this.” They had no choice but to clean up the mess that the inconsiderate father did.
When they were finished cleaning up, they reported the incident to the police. They also thought of making the most out of the situation. What they did was to donate all the money to Safe Harbor, a domestic abuse shelter.
“Turning around and donating that money to moms and children in need — I feel like that just really turns the situation into a positive one,” Avery said. “You can learn a lesson from it.” They didn’t think of what they did as a monumental feat, they just thought of making things better with what was somewhat the last act of violence on their family.
But what they did sparked an impact. It triggered a domino effect. Donations started to pour out into the nonprofit around the world. According to Mary Maupai, the development director of Safe Harbor, “Our online donation page just blew up. And we’ve gotten over $47,000 worth of donations from locally, nationally, internationally — as far as England and beyond. This will be one for the books for sure.”
When Avery heard about the donations, she sobbed because it made them emotional. “It made both of us very emotional. This reach has been amazing and the thoughtfulness and kind gestures have been beyond anything we expected. We just wanted to turn this around and that’s exactly what we did,” she said in a statement.
Family problems are very hard to manage especially if emotions are high. But for those who are left by those who are supposed to look out for them, God is their present help. As Jesus taught on the Mount of Olives, if people do something wrong to you, do not answer in a like manner. Make the most out of it. Then, surely, God will reward you and crown you with peace.
Even if the world means it for evil, God will make things better and give to those who trust and love Him. He is a faithful Father to His children. He will not just provide what they need, He will also put a hedge around them and protect them every day of their lives.