EARLHAM, Iowa — It is a story of unbelievable generosity in a town 272 miles away from here.
It is the story, of Earlham Iowa.
Earlham, Iowa is home to around 1,400 people — people who are proud to call it home.
People like Mayor Jeff Lillie.
“Our motto is Earlham, plant seeds and watch them grow,” Lillie said on a video call Thursday.
With farm fields on its every border, a motto of seeds and growth makes good sense.
But what makes it make even more sense, is the story seeded in generosity planted in Earlham last month.
“So, a few weeks ago, 26th of March, Thursday, I received a call from someone I've known for a for years and he said ‘Hey Jeff, I've got this anonymous donor that wants to pump some money into the local economy.,’” Lille said.
Lille was all ears because even though COVID19 virus hadn't claimed a single person in Earlham's health, it had claimed some jobs.
Layoffs were affecting lots of folks.
The caller said the donor was thinking about buying $50 gift cards from the local grocery store (that is also locally owned) for families in the community.
Right away Jeff said yes, hung up the phone, and started thinking of which families in town would need it those cards, and then...
“Probably an hour later my phone rang again and this third party said ‘Hey Jeff the donor wants to go up to 250’ and I said oh my gosh that's outstanding,” Lillie said.
That would be half the households in town, Jeff was stunned, and then..
“About an hour later the phone rang again, and he said they want to go 500 and that's when I said hey at this point, we are almost to where each residence in town would get a card and he said, find me that number,” Lillie said.
Jeff looked it up, there were 549 households on file with the water department in his town, so he called back and told the third party and they said ‘let’s do it.’
“I was blown away and I said something to the effect of this is going to have such a great impact for every house to get one of these gift cards. And he said Jeff. I think you misunderstood me,” Lillie said.
That’s when the caller said the donor didn't want to buy ONE gift card from one local business in town for every single household, no, the donor wanted to buy three gift cards for every single household in town.
Yes, three.
A $50 card from the locally owned grocery story.
A $50 card from the bar and grille.
And a $50 card from the brand-new restaurant.
Each of those businesses are owned and operated by a family local to the Earlham area.
“At that point I went home, this was hard part, I walked in my house and I just broke down. I was just overwhelmed. My little boy came to me and he said what's wrong dad and it took me a minute to choke it out and I said bud, at least for a little bit, there's nothing wrong, everything is good,” Lillie said.
The donor had bought, for the town of 1400 people more than $84,000 in gift cards.
Over the course of the next few days, Jeff and his staff at city hall gathered the 1,647 gift cards for each local business and drafted a letter to every household and put them all in the mail.
Folks got them two days later.
Shock, joy and pride rippled through Earlham.
But a question lingered.
Who did this?
“To this day I do not know. I’ve always said true benevolence does not require recognition. I don't think I even knew how much that meant until this situation came up. For this person to give away that money and not only not seek the recognition but push it away is just so selfless,” Lillie said.