Habersham County middle schooler refuses to let him steal Christmas
Conner Brookshire is a middle school student who’s teaching a lot of people about the true spirit of Christmas.
The lesson began with a simple fundraiser.
The 7th grader put up a display at Stoney’s Restaurant in Clarkesville to raise money for the Habersham County Animal Shelter. His mom Kelli runs the restaurant. She says the animal shelter is “very near and dear to us and we do something every year for them.”
This year Conner decided to sell ornaments.
He bought most of them last year after Christmas. Others were donated. Conner was selling the ornaments for $2 apiece and had raised right at $100, half his goal. “He was so excited,” says Kelli.
Then, the unexpected happened.
A man entered the restaurant on Monday and stole $140 worth of the ornaments.
“I noticed a man digging through the box of ornaments and didn’t think much about it until I noticed that he kept looking around kind of strange,” Kelli tells Now Habersham. “I thought maybe he was wanting to ask a question but right about that time he walked to the registers, so, I figured he just needed to pay for what he was getting.”
A few seconds later, Kelli saw the man leave the restaurant with two gallon-sized freezer bags full of the small ornaments and what looked like three nativity scenes. “I thought ‘Wow, Conner will be so excited! I can’t believe he bought so many.”
That’s when the ‘bah humbug’ set in.
Kelli asked the cashiers how much the man paid and discovered he didn’t.
“I was just heartbroken. To know that someone can do that a week before Christmas is just so disappointing,” she says.
The hardest part was yet to come. She had to tell Conner.
Kelli knew her son would be upset. When she picked him up from school and told him she could tell that he was, for a moment, until he looked at her and said, “Mom, maybe he needed them. Maybe he has kids and they didn’t have anything. I’m sure he had a good reason for taking them.”
It was a moment made to melt a mother’s heart and a story that’s melted many other hearts, too.
Kelli shared the news of the theft on Facebook. Since then, she says, “We have had so many people reach out and want to donate, even people from other states.”
One of those donors was a local high school student who gave $20.
“It just goes to show you, there may be bad in this world, but there’s so much more good!” says Kelli.
She describes the man who took the ornaments as balding, in his 50s, “just an average guy.” The restaurant security camera didn’t capture his image but that doesn’t seem to matter much to Conner or even his mom, now, really. Conner’s compassion captured the true spirit of Christmas and it looks like he’s going to reach his goal after all.
If you’d like to help Conner with his fundraiser, you may drop off donations at Stoney’s Restaurant or mail them. The address is 389 Washington Street, Clarkesville, Georgia, 30523.
