A Virginia teen was surprised when her dad, who she hadn’t seen in years, made his last child support payment with 80,000 pennies.
18-year-old Avery Sanford said she was in the middle of her class when he pulled up in a trailer and dumped the pennies in the street in front of her house.
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“My mom walked outside while it was happening,” Sanford told WTVR earlier this week. “She didn’t recognize them at first. And she asked, ‘What are you dumping on my lawn?’ And he said, ‘It’s your final child support payment.’ And that’s when she realized who it was.”
But once Sanford and her mom finished picking up the pennies, they decided to turn the bad situation into a positive one by donating every penny to Safe Harbor, a domestic abuse shelter.
“Turning around and donating that money to moms and children in need just really turns the situation into a positive one. You can learn a lesson from it,” she said.
Learning a lesson of her own, Sanford said the incident showed her that she made the right, but tough, decision to stay clear of her dad, adding that she doesn’t want a relationship with someone who disrespects her mom.
“It is really hurtful and damaging to your kids when you do things like that,” she said. “And it doesn’t matter how old your kids are. It doesn’t matter if they’re a young child or an adult. The actions of your parents will always have some effect on you.”
