Theresa Drescher-Fronheiser’s knee surgery turned into a sweet thing for some of the grieving folks of Newtown, Conn.
The Newnan, Ga., woman was sitting home recovering and piddling on Facebook, when she caught up with an old classmate who had just called the Newtown General Store and paid for 100 cups of coffee for anyone coming in.
Tom Cavanaugh, her classmate who now lives in California, gave the store his credit card number and told the manager to spread 100 steaming cups of random, caffeinated kindness to whomever.
“I thought that was amazing,” Drescher-Fronheiser said. “I was very touched and inspired, and so I called the store and said I want to do something for the children and bought enough candy for him to give it out to about 400 children.”
“I am a mother and can’t even imagine what they are feeling. I just wanted to do something,” she said.
“I told another friend and by mid-afternoon I started a group on Facebook and called it 100 Cups of Coffee, support for Newtown, Ct.”
The guerrilla-kindness movement has spread among her acquaintances and by social media to other businesses that serve the little community that has become the focus of national attention and grief. Other donors have started calling D’Orazio Sisters Bakery in town and the Bagel Delight deli.
Eunice Laverty, the owner of Bagel Delight, said “It’s just overwhelming. It really is.”
Laverty has reached out to families and police officers to see if they have needs. If they do, she will fill an order for them and a donor will pay for it.
“I want people to need it and want it,” Laverty said. “I don’t want to just take people’s money and waste it.”
She said donors have called from Georgia and Illinois, California, New Jersey and Florida.
“These babies — who were in here with their parents and you would give them a cookie — and they are gone,” she said. “In the midst of all this heartbreak, (The gifts) are overwhelming.”
Drescher-Fronheiser gives the credit to Cavanaugh.
She said, “If he had not bought that 100 cups of coffee, none of this would have happened.”
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