We’ve all heard the saying of turning lemons into lemonade, but how about turning pennies into positive change?
When one estranged father decided to make his last child support payment in a big, purposely inconvenient way, the daughter he was ‘supporting’ refused to let the moment stay negative. She turned it around and donated that money to those in need instead.
On May 21, a family in Richmond, Virginia received a puzzling mid-day delivery.
In the middle of the day, a van with a trailer pulled up and dumped 80,000 pennies onto their front lawn: the final child support payment from Avery Sanford’s father.
Avery recounted the moment as told by her mother, as she was in class while it happened.
“I just turned 18. When I was in the middle of class, my dad came by. He had rented a trailer,” she said in an interview with WTVR . “He pulled up in front of the house and turned the trailer on so it dumped out all the pennies on the grass and my mom came out and was like, ‘What are you dumping in my yard?’ She didn’t know who it was until he shouted, ‘It’s your final child support payment.'”
The act of pettiness had an emotional impact on Avery, who already wasn’t on good terms with her father.
“It’s not just my mom he’s trying to embarrass, it’s also me and my sister and it’s upsetting that he didn’t consider that before he did that,” she explained. “[…] It’s really hurtful and damaging to your kids when you do things like that. It doesn’t matter if they’re young or an adult, the actions of your parents will always have some effect on you.”
However, the family decided to make the best of it, turning a situation filled with negativity into something positive.
They collected all of the pennies, cashed them in, then donated that money to Safe Harbor , a shelter for those experiencing domestic abuse, sexual abuse, or human trafficking.
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“Turning around and donating that money to moms and children in need, I feel like that really turns this situation into a positive.”
Commenters were quick to recognize the good deed.
Other comments on the Instagram post spoke about how truly petty the act was.
wesley_taylor15 writes, “That dude had hate in his heart. Embarrassing to fathers everywhere.”
Avery says this incident reinforced her decision to cut contact with her father.
Avery, according to WTVR, explained, “That the penny incident proved to her that she made the tough but right decision to stay clear. She said she had no interest in having a relationship with anyone who disrespected her mother.”
When asked for a statement, Avery’s father said his actions were the result of 18 years of built-up frustration, and that his emotions got the better of him.
The father then told WTVR , “The last thing he wanted to do was to put a further wedge between him and his daughter.” This really doesn’t seem like the best way to do that.
Avery and her family still made the best of the situation.
Regardless of his intentions, Avery and her family were still able to make this a positive change, proving their own generosity and strength of character.
h/t: WTVR CBS 6
