ATLANTA — A sledgehammer to the brick wall is all it took to get into the warehouse of the Empty Stocking Fund nonprofit.
Executive Director Mandy Hunt says someone stole thousands of dollars of donated gifts.
“Many of these families tell us that these oftentimes are the only gifts that their children will receive,” said Hunt.
The community heard of the group’s misfortune and stepped up in a huge way. By Thursday, tens of thousands of dollars of donations started to pour in from the community.
“These people want to be the Grinch and try to steal their Christmas. We’re not going to let it happen,” said Robb Dinker.
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Rob Dinker with the Dinker Foundation, and his accountant and partner Donald Williams, heard about what happened and knew they had to do something.
“These volunteers that work so hard to help get these gifts together, and was like, ‘No, we can’t, we can’t let the volunteers down,’” said Williams.
They put $10,000 together with their own money and gave it directly toward the empty stocking fund.
This large donation, along with those from others, helped the nonprofit raise over $53,000 by Thursday night.
“Maybe let this be an example: ‘Hey, you want to come you want to come steal from the community? Look, we’ve not only replenish what you took, but we’ve more than doubled it now,’” said Dinker.
Hunt says they have already given gifts to 20,000 families, but they still had a few hundred to go.
The hope is that something horrible will turn into even more blessings.
“We need to turn it around and make it a positive thing, and not let that Grinch ruin Christmas for us and for these families,” said Hunt.
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