Homeless Community Donates $8 To Family Of Slain Officer And Sparks Act Of Kindness

On Sept 18, 28-year-old Richmond Police Officer Seara Burton lost her life after being shot while responding to police officers with a traffic stop.

At the funeral, Richmond Police Lieutenant Donnie Benedict shared a remarkable story from September 1, when a stranger walked into the police station to offer a gift of kindness and love.

The gift was an old and wrinkled enveloped containing 8 $1 bills as a donation to officer Burton’s family, with four words written on it, ‘people from the street’.

“There have been many valuable gifts given in honor of Seara. However none, and I mean none, are more valuable than the gift of 8 $1 bills in a dirty white envelope,” Benedict said.

The department decided to frame the gift rather than deposit it into the Officer Burton fund as a show for the big impact Officer Burton had on the community she served for four years.

This act of kindness and love has touched the hearts of the people in Richmond and now, they are rallying behind their homeless community.

Amber Colney was one such resident who decided to reach out on social media to find out the people and help them.

“Ask and you shall receive; we’ve got more donations in the last 12 hours than we have in the entire 3 days. It’s been insane,” Conley said.”

“They gave everything they had and they don’t even know where their next meal is coming from,” she added.

“Her mom told me that she would love this. She would love people helping people and reaching out,” Conley said. “Everyone feels so hopeless and I feel like now that unfortunately Seara is gone this is the best legacy you could every leave behind is people showing kindness to the other citizens in honor of her.”

It was a beautiful, selfless act of kindness and love from the homeless community. It reminds us of the story of the widow’s mite in the Bible. May God bless them all.

So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.” Luke 21:3‭-‬4 (NKJV)