Old Man Buys Box of Hershey's Bars Every Week To Hand Out to Strangers
The smallest acts of kindness go a long way.
Sometimes simply putting a smile on someone’s face makes all the difference.
One 94-year-old WWII veteran named Bob Williams has lived out this concept for more than 10 years in his small town of Long Grove, Iowa — a town with only 800 citizens.
Williams is a retired teacher and former football coach, and he has been melting hearts every day of his life simply by handing out chocolate bars.
Every Saturday, according to CNN, Williams goes to the local Dollar General and purchases a box of Hershey’s chocolate bars. He gives two to the cashiers, one to the person behind him, and goes on his way to pass out the chocolate bars.
Not only that, but he also has an entire fridge full of chocolate bars that he freezes so he can give them away.
Over the course of these 10 years, Williams is estimated to have given out around 6,000 chocolate bars — around 300 to his friends alone.
Hershey’s has recently picked up on this random act of kindness and has decided to feature Williams in an ad campaign.
In a video made by Hershey, Williams described just why he does this.
“It puts a smile on their face. It just makes me feel good,” he said.
One of his close friends, Jan Hartwig-Heggen, said that Williams is always wearing a yellow slicker or in Iowa Hawkeyes gear.
He is also incredibly recognizable around town, receiving honks as his fame is evident.
Darla Fay describes Williams as her grandfather figure after she lost her grandparents. One February morning, Williams asked Fay to be his valentine. He gave her a chocolate bar, and he’s been visiting her almost every day since.
Williams’ neighbors reached out to the Quad City Times last year after they learned that he regularly brought 18 chocolate bars to his doctor’s office and knew the names of all the doctors in there.
“There are two Lisas, a Mary Beth, and a Cindy,” he said.
He also regularly visits a bench that he bought in honor of his wife who passed away.
“She gives me orders for the day,” he said.
A smaller magazine called “Our Iowa” did a feature story on Williams, and a woman sent the article to her son, who works in Hershey’s strategies department.
From there, Hershey took the story and ran with it. Thank goodness for these small acts of kindness. What a sweet way of life!
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