When Avery Sanford, a high school senior from Virginia, saw a man in an SUV pulling up in front of her house, she did not expect to see him dump 80,000 pennies on her lawn.
Security cameras caught the moment when Avery’s dad dumped it all, and when Avery’s mom went outside to check who the man was, he told her those 80,000 pennies were for “your final child support payment.”
Avery was disappointed by her father’s behavior. But she and her mother decided to use those pennies for a beautiful purpose.
The two collected the pennies using a snow shovel and donated all 80,000 of them (a total of $800) 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 told ABC 7. “You can learn a lesson from it.”
When the story spread, many were inspired to donate.
“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,” said Mary Maupai, Safe Harbor’s development director.
