Millionaire Supports Children's Shelters for Years, One Day They Team up to Save His Company – Story of the Day

Sometimes a small problem can snowball into a major crisis, which was almost the case for Thomas. Luckily, his community rallied around him and helped save his company from collapse.

Thomas was born in a poor country that had many issues. Thomas' father, Jacob, was poor, and his city was almost in ruins. One day, Jacob made a plan for Thomas to move to the USA so that he could live a better life. Unfortunately, his father needed to stay behind to care of their family.

Thomas arrived in a new country all alone and had to find a way to find work, polish his English and try to help his family back home. He started as a delivery man and was a very hard worker. Thomas told a manager at one of the companies he delivered to about his story.

The manager replied, "I come from the same background. If you keep grinding, you could be running the show. Trust me, I've been there."

This was unexpected, but Thomas took the advice and worked his way up from delivery man to working in a factory and, finally, running the factory.

Despite his rapid rise to success, he found himself very lonely. Thomas wasn't much of a social butterfly outside of work. He was more worried about helping underprivileged kids around the city. There were several shelters close in the area, and Thomas could see that only a few people were willing to help.

Not only did Thomas donate money and food to the shelters, but he would also spend his free time helping them with repairs and bringing them equipment like heaters. Thomas was a tall, friendly man who quickly earned an adorable nickname from the kids.

You've helped us so much over the last year, and we don't want to see you go.

"We'll call you Thomas The Tank from now on because you look like the cartoon, and you always bring us stuff!" one orphan named Rachel told him. In the year since he took over as the factory boss, Thomas had made more friends than he had realized.

Since he was from another country, away from his family, he still felt isolated. Despite this, his community quickly grew to love him, and all his factory workers appreciated all he did for them. The factory still needed to meet targets on time, and due to the state of the economy, any significant slip-ups or delays could spell ruin.

Thomas was actually planning to expand the company and find new clients. To do this, he arranged a meeting with potential partners at his factory so that he could show off the impressive work his team was already doing.

"We have a huge delivery period coming up for the holiday season. We have orders going around the town for printed newspapers, magazines, posters, postcards, and even some larger packages. If we expand the factory, we could start publishing for many more companies," Thomas bragged.

"This is all very impressive, but have you heard that union workers are going on strike in December? We've just heard this morning," one investor asked.

Thomas was taken aback by the question but gathered himself and answered, "I promise you, we'll make sure that we get our orders out on time."

Thomas had told a bit of a white lie. He only found out about the strike once the investor told him, and he needed to figure out how to solve the issue. His factory workers had done their work, but he wasn't in charge of deliveries.

So if the deliveries were late because of the strike, he would lose a lot of money at the most crucial time of the year. Thomas was worried that everything he had worked for would go down the drain. When he visited a shelter to drop some food off, everyone could tell something was wrong.

"Why are you so sad, Thomas The Tank?" Rachel asked. Even though Rachel was only 11 years old, she was pretty smart, and Thomas often told her stuff about his job. He explained the situation to Rachel and admitted that he might not be able to help them as much anymore.

"I might lose everything if I can't find a way to get these deliveries out. But it's been a real pleasure coming here and helping you guys," he admitted. After Thomas returned to work, Rachel told everyone at the shelter about his problem.

Together, nurses and children from the shelters that Thomas helped around the town devised a secret plan. They divided into groups, and each group took a separate area of the city so that all the orders would make it to each location. Each group picked its district.

"You guys pulled the rabbit out of the hat here. I thought all the delivery guys were on strike?"

On the deadline of the delivery day, Thomas was in the loading dock behind the factory. He was prepared to tell his team the bad news when he noticed the packages had already gone out. "T—The workers didn't go on strike?" He asked one of the factory workers.

"No, I thought you sent them... A bunch of people came from the shelter and took the packages out for delivery. They were super organized. They're already headed out to different parts of town," the worker replied.

Thomas was stunned and couldn't believe it. But soon, he started receiving emails.

"Thank you very much for getting our packages delivered! Not sure how you pulled this off with the strike happening, but you guys are the best!" one email read. Another read, "You guys pulled the rabbit out of the hat here. I thought all the delivery guys were on strike? Thank you!"

Thomas cried tears of joy because his factory would survive after all. Later that day, the kids and nurses from the shelters returned to the factory and celebrated with Thomas.

"This is our gift to you, Thomas The Tank! You've helped us so much over the last few years, and we don't want to see you go. We thought the least we could do was to help save the factory," Rachel said.

Thomas' factory was saved. The following year, he was able to expand the factory as planned.

Thomas also managed to move his family closer to him. It became a tradition to barbeque for the community at a nearby park in December. They did this to remember how the town came together during a crisis.

What can we learn from this story?

• No good deed goes unnoticed. Thomas gave back to his community out of the goodness of his heart. When he needed help the most, he didn't even need to ask Rachel and the shelters for help, they showed up for him.
• There is always a solution to any problem. Even though Thomas was resigned to the possibility of his company failing due to the crisis, there was still light at the end of the tunnel. All he needed was a helping hand.

Share this story with your friends. It might brighten their day and inspire them.

If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a teen son who gives his mom a house after they spend years in a shelter for the homeless.

This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone’s life. If you would like to share your story, please send it to info@amomama.com.