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It seems to be true that the holiday season brings out the best in everyone. Even when most organizations are wishing for an end of the year donation or surprise gift, it usually doesn’t happen. But the West Virginia State University Helping Our Undergraduates Succeed in Education (HOUSE) Program’s Christmas got an early visit from a local “Santa” and made their Christmas so much brighter!

The WVSU HOUSE Program consists of two nationally unique programs for young adults who have faced challenges growing up and serving formerly homeless and battered women who want to begin their college education. The WVSU HOUSE Program exists to help these individuals achieve their goals by providing comprehensive, nurturing transitional housing programs.

Mr. Ray Williams contacted the WVSU HOUSE program about making a large holiday donation to the program. Williams told a touching story of how his home recently burned down and the abundance of love and support he received from the community. Williams, overcome with gratitude, was inspired by his daughter Ostin’s suggestion in holiday spirit and paying the kindness forward. Without hesitation Williams decided to use the same amount of money he was given in his time of need and donate it to select nonprofit organizations around the Kanawha Valley in a pay-it-forward fashion.

The WVSU HOUSE program would like to thank Ray, daughter Ostin, and son Grant for their overwhelming $1000 gift. Their kindness and generosity made the holidays brighter for WVSU’s HOUSE Program in helping to provide residence, guidance, and support for “at-risk” young adults and abused or formerly homeless females. The gift will be a welcome addition to the program going towards program costs, while directly assisting the residents and their children.
For more information on the WVSU HOUSE Program, contact David Boyles at dboyles@wvstateu.edu or by phone at 304.766.6994 or visit the WVSU HOUSE on the web at http://www.grdi.wvstateu.edu/extension/family-and-consumer-science/house

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The young father stood in line at the Kmart layaway counter, wearing dirty clothes and worn-out boots. With him were three small children.

He asked to pay something on his bill because he knew he wouldn’t be able to afford it all before Christmas. Then a mysterious woman stepped up to the counter.

“She told him, ‘No, I’m paying for it,’” recalled Edna Deppe, assistant manager at the store in Indianapolis. “He just stood there and looked at her and then looked at me and asked if it was a joke. I told him it wasn’t, and that she was going to pay for him. And he just busted out in tears.”

At Kmart stores across the country, Santa seems to be getting some help: Anonymous donors are paying off strangers’ layaway accounts, buying the Christmas gifts other families couldn’t afford, especially toys and children’s clothes set aside by impoverished parents.

Before she left the store Tuesday evening, the Indianapolis woman in her mid-40s had paid the layaway orders for as many as 50 people. On the way out, she handed out $50 bills and paid for two carts of toys for a woman in line at the cash register.

“She was doing it in the memory of her husband who had just died, and she said she wasn’t going to be able to spend it and wanted to make people happy with it,” Deppe said. The woman did not identify herself and only asked people to “remember Ben,” an apparent reference to her husband.

Deppe, who said she’s worked in retail for 40 years, had never seen anything like it.

“It was like an angel fell out of the sky and appeared in our store,” she said.

Most of the donors have done their giving secretly.

Dona Bremser, an Omaha nurse, was at work when a Kmart employee called to tell her that someone had paid off the $70 balance of her layaway account, which held nearly $200 in toys for her 4-year-old son.

“I was speechless,” Bremser said. “It made me believe in Christmas again.”

Dozens of other customers have received similar calls in Nebraska, Michigan, Iowa, Indiana and Montana.

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 phenomenon seems to have begun in Michigan before spreading, Kmart executives said.

“It is honestly being driven by people wanting to do a good deed at this time of the year,” said Salima Yala, Kmart’s division vice president for layaway.

The good Samaritans seem to be visiting mainly Kmart stores, though a Wal-Mart spokesman said a few of his stores in Joplin, Mo., and Chicago have also seen some layaway accounts paid off.

Kmart representatives say they did nothing to instigate the secret Santas or spread word of the generosity. But it’s happening as the company struggles to compete with chains such as Wal-Mart and Target.

Kmart may be the focus of layaway generosity, Yala said, because it is one of the few large discount stores that has offered layaway year-round for about four decades. Under the program, customers can make purchases but let the store hold onto their merchandise as they pay it off slowly over several weeks.

The sad memories of layaways lost prompted at least one good Samaritan to pay off the accounts of five people at an Omaha Kmart, said Karl Graff, the store’s assistant manager.

“She told me that when she was younger, her mom used to set up things on layaway at Kmart, but they rarely were able to pay them off because they just didn’t have the money for it,” Graff said.

He called a woman who had been helped, “and she broke down in tears on the phone with me. She wasn’t sure she was going to be able to pay off their layaway and was afraid their kids weren’t going to have anything for Christmas.”

“You know, 50 bucks may not sound like a lot, but I tell you what, at the right time, it may as well be a million dollars for some people,” Graff said.

Graff’s store alone has seen about a dozen layaway accounts paid off in the last 10 days, with the donors paying $50 to $250 on each account.

“To be honest, in retail, it’s easy to get cynical about the holidays, because you’re kind of grinding it out when everybody else is having family time,” Graff said. “It’s really encouraging to see this side of Christmas again.”

Lori Stearnes of Omaha also benefited from the generosity of a stranger who paid all but $58 of her $250 layaway bill for toys for her four youngest grandchildren.

Stearnes said she and her husband live paycheck to paycheck, but she plans to use the money she was saving for the toys to help pay for someone else’s layaway.

In Missoula, Mont., a man spent more than $1,200 to pay down the balances of six customers whose layaway orders were about to be returned to a Kmart store’s inventory because of late payments.

Store employees reached one beneficiary on her cellphone at Seattle Children’s Hospital, where her son was being treated for an undisclosed illness.

“She was yelling at the nurses, ‘We’re going to have Christmas after all!’” store manager Josine Murrin said.

A Kmart in Plainfield Township, Mich., called Roberta Carter last week to let her know a man had paid all but 40 cents of her $60 layaway.

Carter, a mother of eight from Grand Rapids, Mich., said she cried upon hearing the news. She and her family have been struggling as she seeks a full-time job.

“My kids will have clothes for Christmas,” she said.

Angie Torres, a stay-at-home mother of four children under the age of 8, was in the Indianapolis Kmart on Tuesday to make a payment on her layaway bill when she learned the woman next to her was paying off her account.

“I started to cry. I couldn’t believe it,” said Torres, who doubted she would have been able to pay off the balance. “I was in disbelief. I hugged her and gave her a kiss.”

We believe that one person–you–can make a difference with an act of kindness, big or small. Through Youmanity, Aviva can inspire people to do good, and we can recognize their effort. This may not sound like something that would come from an insurance company. But that’s our goal. It’s just another way we put people before policies.
You + Humanity = Youmanity

Visit their website to get started and request your own token to pass on and create a lifechanging story for you and someone else.
http://www.avivausa.com/portal/site/avivausa/content/home/youmanity

If you’re cash-strapped, that doesn’t mean you can’t help others this holiday season.  Here are a few Web sites where you can give without a lot of green.

GoodShop.com & GiveClicks.com:  These sites donate a portion of proceeds to charity as you shop.

IDoFoundation.org:  Helps couples create gift registries, invitations and party favors that benefit charitable groups.

Soles4Souls.org:  Distributes shoes to poor and the disaster-struck around the world.

StuffedAnimalsForEmergencies.org & LovingHugs.org:  Gives your gently-used stuffed animals to children in need.

HandsOnNetwork.org & VolunteerMatch.org:  Pair you with local volunteer needs.

Yes it is true, people will do anything for their pets. Last night with the summer heat coming out in full force. My wife and I noticed some ants were making their way into our kitchen through the sliding glass door.

I had been out two days before spraying continuously around the back of the house, the sliding glass door, and all windows. But those suckers were still getting in. I reasoned that I couldn’t just spray all over the kitchen because of our two cats, their food, and their healthy well being. So we strategized what to do.

I figured we had to spray the ant kill inside to end this pestering. So we took the cats downstairs and locked the downstairs door to keep them away from the drop zone of spraying. I then continued to spray around the door inside, the floor in front of the door, the cabinet corner, and below the cabinets where little insect critters would try to hide. I felt comfortable spraying the insect killer because the cats were well away out of harms way.

After the spraying session, it had to dry before the animals could come back up stairs. I didn’t want them locked down in the basement alone, I mean they might get bored or something. Or worse tear up something down there.  So I spent the next two hours down in the basement babysitting the cats. They sure are a crazy animal. I enjoyed watching them, playing, and learning more about how they act (good and bad)!

Hopefully no more ants……

While out watching some basketball with some friends, we were eating some dinner. I generously offered to buy some food for everyone to have while we watched the game. It was totally unexpected by everyone.

It is getting so hot here in WV that on some days it is unbearable to walk around any long distances outside.  Today a co-worker had to travel across campus to pick up a University vehicle for a trip.

Even though the person said they would walk just fine, I wouldn’t have it. I wouldn’t want to walk in the heat and be sweating for my upcoming appointment and I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through that either.

I insisted that I give them a ride to pick up the vehicle and keep them calm, cool and collected for their afternoon appointment. It only took a few minutes of my time, but I believe it paid huge dividends for the person to stay cool and not be frustrated by the heat and the long walk.

By Gary A. Harki

The 4-year-old who lost his pet pygmy goat after police found it dead in his neighbor’s bedroom now has a new goat, thanks to two New Yorkers originally from West Virginia.

Mark Taunquin and his wife, Laura Schmidt, read the news story and contacted the Gazette about getting in touch with Lisa Powers and her grandson, Morgan Powers.

“We thought about how funny and wonderful it would be to grow up with a pet pygmy goat and how awful it’d be to lose it in such a senseless and cruel manner,” Taunquin wrote in an email.

“So instead of being bummed out about it, we decided to give the family the money to buy another one. We just hope Lisa’s grandson has as much fun with his new goat as he did with Bailey.”

Mark Thompson, 19, of Greenview Road, is charged with animal cruelty after police got a call from the Powers family claiming he stole their goat, which was named Bailey after a female character on the Disney Channel television show “The Suite Life on Deck,” at about 3:15 a.m. on May 2.

When police came to look for clues as to how the boy’s goat ended up dead in his neighbor’s bedroom, Lisa Powers said she knew she couldn’t tell him what happened.

Lisa Powers said she was very grateful for the $150 sent by Taunquin and Schmidt for the new goat.

“My grandson was heartbroken when the little one was gone,” she said of the goat. “We started calling around … It was really hard to find a goat.”

But by Saturday, the Powers family had found Trixie, their new pygmy goat that they bought from a farm in Putnam County. It was already named and fully grown, Lisa Powers said.

“He’s a little afraid of her sometimes. He’s not sure about her horns,” Lisa Powers said of her grandson.

On Monday at the family’s farm near Alum Creek, Morgan Powers fed the goat and talked about how he thinks it got its name.

“They call it Trixie because it trips you all the time,” he said.

Taunquin and Schmidt, who now live in Brooklyn, both have family in the Charleston area.

“I realize that won’t resolve the trauma they’ve suffered, but it really breaks our hearts that this kid lost a pet and all everyone seems to be focusing on is the dark absurdity of Mark Thompson’s grotesque crime,” Taunquin said.

Prosecutors are still looking into Thompson’s actions with the goat, said Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Plants.

A preliminary hearing in the case was postponed at Thompson’s lawyer’s request so that Thompson can have a psychological evaluation, Plants said.

Thompson remains in jail on a $50,000 surety bond.

Powers’ nephew, Joshua Pollis, and two women went to Thompson’s house on May 2 after getting a call that he had the goat. They say they found him wearing a bra and panties, standing over the dead goat with his pants down and blood all over the floor.

When police entered the house after being called to the scene, they found fresh blood near the front door of the bedroom and in Thompson’s bedroom. Inside the bedroom police found the small gray-and-white goat wearing a pink collar lying dead on the floor, blood coming from its neck, according to the criminal complaint filed against Thompson in Kanawha County Magistrate Court. There was a pornographic magazine photo laying a few feet from the goat, according to the complaint.

Thompson was found several hours later after police searched the house and the surrounding woods.

Thompson allegedly told police he was high on bath salts, a synthetic drug that mimics the symptoms of cocaine and can cause hallucinations, for about three days. The goat was taken to a veterinarian for a necropsy.

Plants declined to disclose the results of the goat’s examination.

“At this point all possible charges are being investigated, including larceny of a goat and animal cruelty for sexual assault,” Plants said.

Lisa Powers said she’s very thankful to the police, Taunquin and Schmidt, and everyone who helped the family since Bailey was killed.

“There’s still kindness in this world,” she said.

Reach Gary Harki at gharki@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5163.