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Woman Hands Out $20 Bills At Racine Salvation Army For Christmas

by amyellensoden | December 16, 2009 at 10:51 am

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Last week, people at the Salvation Army in Racine, Wisconsin received a surprise Christmas gift when a woman showed up and handed out $20 bills to patrons. The Christmas holidays often prompt a lot of anonymous donations and gifts to those in need, and this anonymous woman is an example of that kind of generosity.

The anouymous woman showed up at the Racine Salvation Army to drop off a bunch of toys, and proceeded to hand out $20 bills to people in the store waiting for service. Eyewitnesses claim that she even left the Salvation Army to go and get more cash from the nearest ATM when she ran out of bills to hand out.

Forty-three-year-old Elizabeth King was in line for food vouchers. She told the Racine Journal Times the generous woman handed her $20 and said "Merry Christmas." King then watched in awe as the woman did the same for everyone there. King says: "There is a Santa Claus ... she's an angel or something."

Anonymous donors like this woman have come to be known as "Secret Santas" throughout the Christmas holiday season. Another Salvation Army location in Fort Meyers, Florida has been receiving specially prepared gold coins with an 'in memory of' tribute message for the past four years.

Donors at Philadelphia's Philanthropic Trust are another prime example of charitable people who give so much but choose to remain anonymous. The trust received a $30,000 anonymous donation to a Louisiana school one year, a generous gift they still look back on especially during this time of year.

One client distributes donations using only the name "Santa's Silent Elves." Another asks that donation checks be coded only with numbers and mailed from a random location.

Others use several trust organizations to deliver smaller checks so recipients do not know that the entire donation came from the same person or family.

Many donors choose to remain anonymous during the Christmas season, and what's remarkable is that those individuals often give the most. Clearly it's not about getting recognized, but about honest and selfless giving at Christmas time.