Anonymous Family Hands Out Cash to Customers at Goodwill Store

(Paul Colletti/The Dispatch/AP Photo)

A family of five paid a trip to the Goodwill Industries in Valpariaso, Ind., to hand out Christmas cards brimming with good tidings and cash on Saturday.

"A father, a mother, a grandmother, a younger woman, and young boy had stacks of Christmas cards in their hands and walked up and down the aisles passing out cards to the shoppers," said Erika Miller,  the district manager for Goodwill Industries Northwest area, told ABC News.

The story was first reported by NWI.com.

Inside the cards, the shocked and often tearful customers would find a Christmas card that read  "Merry Christmas Angel" and cash of around $25.

And that was just their first act of giving. After the anonymous family left the store to hand out Christmas cards at another store, they returned to Goodwill and stayed close to the register to pay for customers' purchases.

The goodwill exhibited by the family was so immense, the store employees were unable to keep track of how many people benefited from their generous spirit. But people in need were definitely helped that day.

"Some of the employees [at the location] knew the shoppers who were there making purchases and they were shopping at the store that day because it was half off," said Miller, who learned about the charitable family from employees. "They were people that were truly in need."

The Goodwill Industries International is a nonprofit organization that has helped more than 170,000 people land a job.

These generous acts of giving  have been happening across the United States from the layaway counters at K-Mart to Wal-Mart. A giving few has touched many.

"They were very typical, average people, nothing really remarkable about their appearance, it was just their generosity that made them stand out to everybody," Miller told ABCNews.

The reason? The anonymous mother told customers and Goodwill employees that "several years ago she was in a position where she could only afford to shop at [the Goodwill] and it helped her to get through the difficulties at that time," Miller said.

Now that the family has gotten back to a level of financial security they wanted to give something back to the community, Miller said.

"They felt that the family needed nothing for themselves this Christmas, and so they wanted to make everyone else as happy as themselves," Miller continued. "And, their Christmas gift to themselves was giving."