Sometimes it’s the stories about people in our communities doing good that grabs our attention. This story about a young boy helping a classmate is one of those examples.
Dylan, a 14-year-old boy in New Mexico, started asking his mother, Josette, to pack two lunches before he left for school in the morning. Josette figured that her teenage son was just hungrier than normal and needed more food.
Eventually, Dylan told his mom that the extra lunch was for a boy in his class that only had a fruit cup to eat during lunch.
Josette was touched by her son’s graciousness and continued packing two lunches, leaving encouraging sticky notes for the boys to read each day. Soon, the principal at Dylan’s school called Josette in for a meeting after the other boy’s mother found out that she was packing a lunch for her son.
The other boy’s mother wanted to pay her back, by Josette refused to accept any money.
“She says, ‘I know this isn’t much, but I just got a job, and I know you’ve been feeding my son,’” Josette explained in a Facebook video she posted on Oct. 14.
According to KCCI, a New Mexico news station, the volleyball team at the school raised $400 to pay Josette back for her good deed. She accepted the money and used it to pay off overdue cafeteria accounts from children at the school.
“So now, nobody in that school owes any money,” she said in the video. “And now everyone can eat.”
Josette’s good deed is inspiring others around the country to pay it forward.
Earlier this week, a man in Iowa wrote a $700 check to pay off overdue lunch bills for kids at his local elementary school.
He told the Des Moines Register that he was encouraged to give back after hearing the story.
“I don’t want to tell people what to do … but it’s always nice when people do nice things,” he said.
Photo Credit: Facebook