There is no better time than the Christmas season to help neighbors in need — which is exactly what a community in Nampa, Idaho, did recently for a young family with a health crisis.
They were pretty creative, too.
“The burden just kept growing. It was getting bigger and bigger and more impossible to manage.”
Amanda Kofoed, a stay-at-home mom of four, was working toward a degree in elementary education when she had to drop out of school in October. Grim results came back from tests on a lump in her arm. Kofoed, 30, was diagnosed with stage 3 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, as “Inside Edition” reported.
She was instructed to start her cancer treatment right away, even though she wouldn’t be on her husband Clint’s insurance for three months.
“The burden just kept growing,” she told “Inside Edition.” “It was getting bigger and bigger and more impossible to manage.”
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That’s when a large group of “customers” surprised the parents at a local coffee shop with a flash mob made of money — to help the couple with their medical bills.
Two hundred strangers, family, and friends lined up to drop $100 bills on their table at the Flying M Coffee Garage — where the couple believed they were filming a video for Amanda’s GoFundMe page.
“We were crying, overwhelmed,” said Kofoed. “They were all told not to hug me because my immune system is compromised from having started treatment, but I couldn’t stop myself. I was hugging everyone.”
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They were just starting to film their video at the coffee shop when they were interrupted by close friend Jesse Fadel and his family, who dropped $100 on the table.
“I thought he [Fadel] was just crashing the party,” Amanda told Insideedition.com. “I was kind of nervous because we were talking, and I could see they’re walking up [not knowing] they were interrupting.”
But the Fadels simply kept walking, and immediately behind them was another group who dropped another $100 on the table — then another, and another.
“The line just didn’t stop,” Amanda said. “It was our close friends, our family members. It was people we didn’t know, people we haven’t seen in 10 years, people from all parts of our lives.”
The elaborate act of kindness was coordinated by The PRAYnksters, a group of good-hearted troublemakers who pull off elaborate displays that end in a good deed for someone in need. Fadel is a member of the group. In total, Amanda Kofoed said about 200 people came by her table. The grateful couple collected about $13,000 to go toward medical bills.
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“When we saw all those people, it was this relief. We’re not in this bubble trying to do this by ourselves,” she said. “We have this community supporting us, and loving us.”
The attention the flash mob event has created, along with the GoFundMe page, has brought the family an outpouring of community support.
“Friends have come over and cleaned our house,” Amanda Kofoed said. “I can call, and they’ll come and pick my kids up and take them for an afternoon if I need a nap. If I can’t go to the grocery store, they’ll call me and ask if I need milk. They’re not just showing up for us financially, they’re really coming around us and taking care of us.”
With the extra help — Kofoed said she has now had more time to take care of herself throughout her treatment.
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