A Virginia man took it upon himself to lash out at his ex-wife and child by dumping 80,000 pennies, or $800, of his child support payment directly onto the family's lawn.
But though the action was intended to cause harm to his ex-wife and daughter, the teenage girl instead put the obscene amount of change to positive use due to creative thinking.
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Avery Sanford, the daughter of the man, said her father rented a trailer to dump the pennies on her mother's lawn in a symbolic "F**k you" gesture over his final child support payment.
"It is really hurtful and damaging to your kids when you do things like that," Sanford told CBS 6.
"And it doesn't matter how old your kids—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."
But instead of let the gesture become one of burden, Sanford immediately got to work.
Sanford donated the entire sum of money immediately to a domestic violence shelter.
Safe Harbor in Richmond received $850 from Sanford and her mom, but once word spread of Sanford's gesture around the community, the shelter raised around $5,000.
Safe Harbor said they are immensely thankful for the donations.
"During the pandemic, incidents of domestic violence incidents have increased, people who have been abused, especially since the beginning, were trapped in their homes with their abusers and couldn't leave," said Cathy Easter, executive director of Safe Harbor in Richmond, VA.
"Since restrictions started lifting, it's like a tsunami wave of people reaching out for help at a time when federal funding has been cut, so this gift for us has been amazing."
Easter also said she admired Sanford's ability to rise above a demeaning and hostile experience in order to be generous outside of her station.
Sanford said that she hadn't spoken to her father in years, and that this incident only deepened the divide. The family has filed a police report against him, but as of yet, no charges have been filed.
