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Bay Area residents join holiday effort to pay down Kmart layaway accounts

By Aaron Kinney
Posted: 12/16/2011 07:05:06 PM PST

Updated: 12/17/2011 06:54:28 AM PST

Mary (she didn't want to give her last name or have her face photographed), of... ( Dan Honda )«1234»
It began last week in Grand Rapids, Mich., with a single act of generosity: A woman reportedly paid off the Kmart layaway accounts of several strangers.

As word spread, the phenomenon gathered strength, flowing outward from the Midwest, fueled by news accounts and social media. And this week, the great layaway wave rolled into the Bay Area, inspiring benevolence from people trying to make the holiday season a little less burdensome for fellow citizens whose wallets are light.

Kmarts in Hayward, Redwood City and San Mateo confirmed they had been the recipients of largesse. The store on Mission Boulevard in Hayward had received only one donation as of late Friday afternoon, but it was a whopper. One man contributed $9,800, paying down 63 accounts, according to store manager John Pawlik. Store employees waded through a list of accounts Friday, calling incredulous customers. Some reacted to the news with shock, others with tears, Pawlik said.

"We tell them it was Santa Claus coming in to pay off their layaway," Pawlik said.

The donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, said in an email Friday that he learned about the Kmart layaway campaign Thursday night. "I couldn't sleep last night thinking about it and wanted to help," said the man, who identified himself only as someone who lives and works in Silicon Valley. "I do not want publicity, only to encourage others to pay it forward."

Kmart hasn't tallied how many accounts have been paid down across the country, but the number appears to be safely in the dozens -- and perhaps much higher. A spokesman said the company can barely keep track as fresh stories of altruism pop up in states from Florida and Pennsylvania to Oregon and Arizona.

The benefactors generally ask to help families who are squirreling away items for young children. They often pay a portion of the balance, usually all but a few dollars or cents so the layaway order stays in the store's system.

The good Samaritans seem to be visiting mainly Kmart stores, though a Wal-Mart spokesman said a few of its stores in Missouri and Illinois have seen some layaway accounts paid off. Kmart is one of the few large discount stores that offer layaway year-round. Under the program, customers can make purchases but let the store hold onto their merchandise as they pay it off slowly over several weeks.

Kmart representatives say they did nothing to instigate the secret Santas or spread word of the generosity. "It's definitely in the season of giving," said spokesman Tom Aiello. "It's not something we're actively promoting, but we love that our customers are helping other customers."

Three people had stopped by the layaway desk at the Kmart on Delaware Street in San Mateo by 3:30 p.m. Friday to make payments for people they'd never met. One of them was a young woman named Mary, who waited in line for 20 minutes to pay an account down from roughly $270 to $20. Mary, who didn't give her last name, had already visited the store on Veterans Boulevard in Redwood City and plunked down $150, erasing two layaway accounts almost entirely.

"I'm pretty lucky, so I just want to pay it forward," said Mary, who works for a San Mateo software company.

Sam Chatfield, a supervisor at the San Mateo store, got choked up while recalling her conversation with a customer whose account had been sliced from several hundred dollars to a single penny.

"I told her that the Christmas angel had paid her layaway," Chatfield said. "She started crying. It made me start crying."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More than 200 of Winnipeg’s less fortunate will be warmer this winter thanks to the efforts of a group of local high school students.

Seven Grade 12 students from Miles Macdonell Collegiate, located in East Kildonan, decided last spring to knit hats to help keep the homeless warm.

Giezi Arevalo, Matthew Dyer, Cristina Bras, Ryan Rogocki, Kirandeep Bhullar, Joshua Myers, and Becca Brunner are part of the group Esperanza, which means hope in Spanish.

Arevalo first had the idea of doing something to help those on Winnipeg streets two years ago.

"I was driving home one day and I saw a crowd of homeless people without hats," Arevalo said.

"I thought the idea would be neat to bring to my friends to see what they thought."

As a result, the students have knitted 220 of 250 hats they will deliver to the Salvation Army for those in need.

The students admit some of their friends were a little skeptical of what they were doing at first.

"I got a lot of weird looks when I told my friends I was knitting on a Saturday night," Dyer said.

To help with the expense of knitting the hats, the students applied to the United Way for a youth grant of nearly $800. They used the money to purchase wool and other knitting tools.

"It meant a lot that other people liked our idea and were willing to support it," Brunner said.

Brenda McConaghy, a resource teacher at the school, said the project has been a good learning experience for the students.

"On so many levels I think it’s fabulous," said McConaghy, who has taught at the school for 20 years.

"They’ve never written a grant proposal before, but they did and they had the opportunity to present their proposal."

In addition to doing their part for the homeless, the students held a hat sale last year to raise money for the victims of Japan’s devastating earthquake.

"Our friends show their support. I think they like the end product rather than making the hats," Bhullar said.

The students hope their hats will make a small difference in someone else’s life.

"There’s a lot of homeless people in Winnipeg. When hypothermia sits in you lose a lot of the heat from your head," Arevalo said.

McConaghy said learning to think about the welfare of others has been a valuable lesson for members of the student-led group.

"You can have all the smarts in the world, but if you’re not contributing to make the world better it doesn’t matter," she said.