Earlier this week, a man in a Santa suit handed out $10,000 in cash to residents of Portland, Maine.
On Tuesday evening, shoppers at the Goodwill store in Portland, Maine got an early Christmas gift, courtesy of a man decked out in a red suit with a white beard.
It may not have been Santa himself, but the Kris Kringle stand-in, working on behalf of his generous father, was doing his part to spread Christmas cheer to all of the store’s shoppers, giving hundred dollar bills to each of them. All in all, he gave out $10,000 to 100 people that evening.
The lucky Goodwill shoppers were dumbstruck by their good fortune. After struggling with a tough year, many of them weren’t even going to be able to afford presents until Secret Santa came along.
One woman, 46-year-old Aurora Parker, had been upset that she didn’t even have enough money to buy a gift for her son. “I’ve been sitting around and crying a lot,” she told the Portland Press-Herald. “But this was awesome. I didn’t think Santa existed anymore.”
If the story sounds vaguely familiar, it should: the Portland donor, a local businessman, was following the model of another Secret Santa: Kansas City’s Larry Stewart, who handed out more than $1.3 million over the years until his death in 2007.
The Portland man, who wants to remain anonymous, is honoring Stewart’s legacy with his Christmas gift, and hopes to see others follow in his footsteps. Already, there are similar Secret Santas in cities including Phoenix, Charlotte, Detroit and Tulsa.
“I’m hoping for a multiplier effect,” he told the Portland Press-Herald. “I’m shocked that every major city in the United States doesn’t have at least one secret Santa doing something like this.”
So if you’ve got some cash to spare, maybe you should put on a Santa suit and hit the streets, in Larry’s honor.