When Avery Sanford’s father from Richmond, Virginia, dropped off his final child support payment to her mother after years of absence, he chose to leave a pile of 80,000 pennies in front of their shared home instead of writing a check. He thought he was getting revenge and sending a message, but little did he know that he would end up learning a harsh lesson himself.
On the day of her 18th birthday, while Avery was in the middle of a class, her father showed up and rented a trailer. Security camera footage captured the events that followed, showing Avery’s father leaving the 80,000 pennies in front of their home before driving away. However, that was not the end of the story.
Upon arriving in front of the house with a rented trailer, Avery’s father turned on the trailer’s mechanism to pour out all 80,000 pennies onto the lawn. When Avery’s mother came out and saw the pennies, she asked who had dumped them in her yard. It wasn’t until he shouted, “It’s the last child support payment,” that Avery’s mother recognized the person behind the act, according to the high school senior.
Avery Sanford responded to her father’s childish act of dumping 80,000 pennies as her last child support payment with maturity and kindness. Despite the hurt and anger she may have felt, the teenager chose to take a different approach. Instead of lashing out, Avery showed her father what true “cents” and maturity looked like by using the pennies for a greater purpose, turning a negative situation into a positive one.
Avery Sanford and her mother collected the pennies and decided to donate them to a domestic violence organization as the final child support payment from her estranged father. They stored the coins away and when they were done, they donated the $800 to Safe Harbor, a domestic violence clinic.
The father, who was upset at the time, later realized his mistake. Avery explained that he not only tried to embarrass her mother but also her and her sister, and it’s unfortunate that he didn’t think about it before doing it. However, she believes that donating the money to help mothers and children in need turns this situation into a positive one. There is a lesson to be learned from it.
It seems that Avery’s father has learned the most valuable lesson, albeit the hardest. In an interview, he acknowledged that his reaction was a result of 18 years of bottled-up anger and that his emotions got the best of him. He admitted that the last thing he wanted was to create a wider divide between him and his daughter, but unfortunately, that’s exactly what he did. Hopefully, others can learn from his mistake and avoid making the same one.
After the incident with her father, Avery realized that she had made the right decision in not having any contact with him for years. She didn’t want to be associated with someone who would disrespect her mother like that. Avery emphasized that parents’ actions can have a significant impact on their children, stating that such behavior can be very damaging. She added that the actions of one’s parents will always have an effect on oneself, whether they are children or adults.