‘Paying it forward’ in Charles City

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Charles City’s Art Hunt, age 87, gets around on his own just fine.

A lifetime resident of the community, Hunt even cleared out the snow on his property after the storm this week.

“I blew out all my snow, and made a path in the backyard for the dog,” said Hunt, who has resided on an acreage south of town for more than 60 years.

Hunt also does all his own shopping, without assistance — but last Friday he didn’t have to pay for his groceries. Instead, the couple ahead of him in the checkout line at Hy-Vee paid for them.

“I told them they can’t do that, and they just smiled and said, “oh, yes we can,’” Hunt said. “They picked up my full tab, which was close to $40, and told me to ‘pay it forward.’”

Hunt said he had no idea who the couple was, only that they were from Charles City.

“I didn’t catch their names,” Hunt said, and added that the Hy-Vee employee at the checkout counter didn’t know who they were, either.

“She said she’d never seen them before,” he said.

Hunt said he had passed the generous couple about five times in the aisles as they were shopping, and “they kept looking at me in a strange way.”

With his groceries paid for, Hunt had an extra $40 to spare, so he did what the couple asked — he paid it forward. He left Hy-Vee and immediately headed over to his church, and donated the money with the stipulation that it be given to someone in need.

Hunt said he hoped the money would go to “a single mother with kids, or someone like that,” and that he trusted that the church would find someone who could use a little help.

So essentially, the anonymous couple who paid for Hunt’s groceries were actually donating $40 to someone who needed it, through Hunt — which is exactly how “paying it forward” is supposed to work.

Hunt said that he was thankful for what the couple did, and he hoped they read the newspaper, so they now know that he respected their wishes and put the money to good use.

“I don’t know why they picked me, but I’d never had anything like that happen,” Hunt said. “I think that, obviously, it’d be a good thing if people did things like that more often.”