Good NewsHomeless man who returned engagement ring rewarded by strangers
Memoire for Forevermark pave heart diamond ring set in 18k white gold 0.50 ctw, price upon request, Forevermark
It's a good-news story in response to a good-news story.
Two weeks ago, we wrote about a homeless man in Missouri who returned an engagement ring accidentally dropped into his cup.
The owner of the ring, Sarah Darling, wanted to honour the man whose honesty restored her faith in humanity. She and her husband, Bill Krejci, decided to set up a 90-day Giveforward fundraiser for Harris, hoping to raise a $1,000 reward for his good deed.
"Billy Ray Harris returned my wife's engagement ring after she accidentally put it into his cup. You may have heard the stories. A friend of my wife's told a local Kansas City news station, KCTV. They ran a story, and it went viral big-time, eventually being picked up by many national and international news outlets. After friends expressed interest in helping out Billy Ray I put this site together to take donations for him. All donations will be given directly to Billy Ray at the end of the 90 day GiveForeward Campaign. Thank you for your generosity," Krejci wrote.
Because the story had already gone viral, more than 4,000 donations came in from all over the world. In the first ten days, $143,933 was raised.
Krejci updated supporters in a blog post:
"Billy Ray and I got together for an hour or so yesterday afternoon. He's had some problems with his bike so we visited his regular shop and put some new tires and tubes on. Billy Ray is very much into bikes and used to be in a bike club. We joked that he should switch to riding BMX. This WILL happen," he wrote.
"We talked about a lot of things related to my family's ring and the many donations. We talked about one day in the future the ring may one day be passed down to my daughter. We talked about how insanely positive all this has been. We talked about what he's planning to do with the donations. The details would be better left for later but know that he has a very solid plan and a very solid way of making it happen. He had a short and sweet message to give to all of you that I tried to remember, but it escapes me. Next time I'll get video — this time that would have been a bit weird," Krejci wrote.
