Late summer is “back to school” season and stores make sure the shelves are bursting with school supplies. For families on a budget, it can be a difficult time. The kids inevitably want lots of stuff. For one thing if they really have to go back to school, they at least want to get something out of it! For another, they know that most of the other kids are going to have a full panoply of school supplies. But even the basics add up, even if they’re on sale.
18 year-old Kristopher Hudson was working five days a week at the Walmart in Bryant, Arkansas, near Little Rock. His plan was to save up some money for college, so he was obviously very much on a budget. Every penny he spent on something else put him a penny farther from his goal. But Kristopher has a generous streak and despite his own needs, he wanted to “pay it forward” to the extent he could. Recalling advice from his mother, he explained, “One of the things that she always told me and my brother was ‘always encourage others, the best feeling you’ll ever have is when you get to help someone out.'” His goal is to make the world happier: “I want to make people smile.”
What Kristopher did was set some money aside from his paycheck and use it buy school supplies for children in need. Walmart was running a “back to school blitz” program and had bins set up where people could donate school supplies. Ty McCollum, an assistant manager at the store recalled the example that was set: “By him doing that, others of us were like, ‘Well, you know Kristopher’s done this, so maybe I can chip in two or three dollars to help out.'” In Kristopher’s case, it was more than a couple dollars. One week, he used $66 to purchase over 300 items for donation!
What do you think of this generous young man’s way of paying it forward? Let us know in the comments at Facebook and be sure to like and share!
https://youtu.be/dYa225C8MDE