TEEN DONATED 80,000 PENNIES HER DAD DUMPED AS CHILD SUPPORT

Avery Sanford, an 18-year-old from Virginia, and her mother, Raven Sickal, gave away 80,000 pennies that Sanford’s estranged father had dumped outside their home as what he called Sickal’s “final” child support payment. The $800 pile went to Safe Harbor, a nearby shelter for survivors of domestic violence, and the stunt ended up raising far more than the coins were worth.

Sanford, a soon-to-be Virginia Tech freshman, said her father rented a landscaping trailer and pulled up in front of the family’s home in the Richmond area on May 21, 2021. ABC7 New York reported that Sickal did not recognize him at first and asked what was going on.

His answer, as Sanford and her mother recalled it: “It’s your final child support payment.”

“That’s when she realized who it was,” Sanford said.

A trailer, an SUV and a lawn full of coins

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that home-security footage showed a man in an SUV towing a trailer, dumping the coins on the lawn and sidewalk, then driving off. The final payment was due that day, May 21, and the amount owed was $825, so the pennies fell a little short.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the dump happened at about 2:30 p.m. in Glen Allen, and that an officer responded to a domestic-related incident at the home. The Washington Post reported that the officer found pennies scattered in the roadway and that Sickal named her ex-husband as the source.

Henrico police documented the incident but filed no charges, spokesperson Lt. Matthew Pecka told the Inquirer.

Sanford helped shovel the coins out of the street. She said the stunt was never only aimed at her mom.

“It’s not just her that he’d be trying to embarrass. It’s also me, it’s also my sister,” she told ABC7. She said that kind of move is hurtful and damaging to children, no matter how old they are.

Sanford, by then a Deep Run High School graduate, said she had not spoken to her father in years. She said the pennies proved she had made the right call in keeping her distance, and that she had no interest in a relationship with someone who disrespected her mother.

The father told WTVR that his emotions got the best of him after 18 years of frustration. He said “the last thing he wanted to do was to put a further wedge between him and his daughter.”

From a pile of pennies to a shelter donation

Sanford and her mother decided the coins were going to do some good. Every last penny went to Safe Harbor, which supports survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence and human trafficking.

“Turning around and donating that money to moms and children in need — I feel like that just really turns the situation into a positive one,” Sanford said. “You can learn a lesson from it.”

Safe Harbor confirmed the gift to the Inquirer. Executive director Cathy Easter told the AJC the family had turned a negative experience into a positive one.

Then the story spread. Sickal said she “sobbed” when she heard about the donations that followed.

“It made both of us very emotional. This reach has been amazing and the thoughtfulness and kind gestures have been beyond anything we expected. We just wanted to turn this around and that’s exactly what we did,” she said in a statement.

Safe Harbor development director Mary Maupai said the shelter’s online donation page “just blew up.” By the time of ABC7’s report, it had brought in more than $47,000 from local, national and international donors, some as far away as England.

“This will be one for the books for sure,” Maupai said.