Online campaign raises $160,000 for homeless man that returned engagement ring
A homeless man that returned a missing engagement ring a few weeks ago has now received more than $160,000 from an online campaign.
A few weeks ago Kansas City woman, Sarah Darling, emptied her coin purse in Billy Ray Harris’ cup. It wasn’t until the next day that she realized her platinum and diamond engagement ring was missing.
“I was so incredibly upset because, more than just the value of the ring, it had sentimental value,” she told KCTV at the time.
Darling said the ring felt uncomfortable on her fingers so she put them in her coin purse. When she realized Harris had her missing ring she hurried back to the spot she last saw the homeless man, squatted down and asked him if he remembered her.
Harris held on to the ring and handed it back to Darling.
At the time, Darling handed Harris all the cash she had on her. Later, to show her appreciation, Darling had her husband, Bill Krejci, set up a 90-day Giveforward fundraiser for Harris.
Their initial goal was $1,000 but after just a week, it’s raised more than $160,000 from more than 7,000 donations from across the world.
Krejci updated the website with a post titled “Met with Billy Ray Yesterday, We Talked, He’s Good.”
The post reads:
“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 … 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”
According to the post Harris has found a basement apartment to live in. There are still 78 days left to donate.
For more information on the campaign click here.
Follow Mary Ann Georgantopoulos on Twitter @marygeorgant
