The community of Bridgeport, Connecticut spent months collecting donated toys to give to local kids for Christmas, but thieves stole about 1,000 from the stockpile recently. Eric Torres, a pastor from Greater Bridgeport Christian Fellowship says they had six storage pods at the church with toys inside for 6,000 children in the area who had registered to get gifts.
It looked like there would be lots of disappointed little ones on Christmas morning, but then the Burnleys got involved. Lucas Burnley is a knife maker from Cape Cod who heard about the church robbery from his mother-in-law and decided go help. He and his wife usually raffle off their knives to raise money for Christmas gifts for kids in need, so they dedicated a huge chunk of this year’s proceeds to the Bridgeport church.
In 24 hours, the Burnley’s raised almost doubled last year’s total and racked up $92,000! They donated thousands in toys to Cape Cod’s “Stuff-a-bus” campaign then devoted $45,000 to the church in Connecticut. They drove a truck full of toys to the church and pastor Torres says, “You could just feel the joy coming out of them.” And with that, they saved Christmas for all those kids.