The man who pays the debts at Christmas

A man from the Gulf Breeze, a city in northwest Florida (USA), has bad memories. Christmas She was cold while raising her daughters, and this December decided to refund several families’ water and electricity bills for the third year in a row, raising more than $ 96,000 in donations.

Mike EsmondThe 75-year-old paid about $ 4,600 in 29 bills for his Christmas donations last week, and his total donations this year are about $ 85,000 and more than 96,000 over the past three years, he said Friday. Local TV10.

In December 2019, Mike Esmond, The owner of a pool cleaning company in Pensacola, paid utility bills for 36 families, as he did in 1983 without electricity, water or gas at Christmas.

After that, Esmond received a “A Nut Above” campaign check from Flanders Candy Company for being a good Samaritan, after paying essential utility bills for Gulf Breeze residents who donated about $ 12,000 over the past two Christmas seasons.

Since the beginning of 2021, Esmond has used $ 104,000 in cash from checks to pay bills 667 bills to help those at risk of being cut off from Gulf Breeze households, for a total of about $ 80,000, local 10 details.

“In other words, between March and August, I paid everyone’s account once, for six consecutive months,” said Esmond, a senior U.S. Army veteran.

In December 1983 the ground temperature reached 10 degrees Fahrenheit (-12 degrees Celsius), and Esmond and his three daughters went without electricity or heat because they could not afford to pay.

“We had no heat that year, which was the lowest temperature ever recorded in Pensacola. We had snow hanging on the windows,” Esmond told the Pensacola News Journal.

With the Flanders campaign money he donated in 2021, Esmond said he had no plans to donate again this holiday season, but the idea of ​​encouraging others prompted him to continue the tradition.

“You know, not only are these 29 bills being paid, it’s bringing joy to many in the United States and around the world,” Esmond said.

“I have numerous letters, sections and emails from people,” the donor promised.