A boy thought he was handing a dollar bill to a homeless man outside of a coffee shop in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Matt Busbice woke up to a fire alarm going off in his condo complex’s building. He quickly threw on clothes that were lying around and ran outside. He discovered it was a false alarm.
So, since he was awake, he decided to go across the street and get some coffee, ready to begin his day, despite his appearance.
Busbice placed his order and went outside to pray. He chose a spot off in a corner.
About the same time that Busbice stepped out on the patio, young Kelvin Ellis, age nine, entered an eyeglass shop next door to the coffee shop with his father. Kelvin left the eyeglass store while his father was getting his eyes examined. He went to the coffee shop.
Young Kelvin saw Busbice and thought he was a homeless man. Kelvin had $1 in his pocket and offered it to Busbice.
“And I started to slowly open my eyes, and there’s a kid coming at me, about my height, grey sweats; holds his fist up,” Busbice said, adding that rather than flying into his chin, the fist was holding a dollar bill. “And I go, ‘What?’”
“‘If you’re homeless, here’s a dollar,’” 9-year-old Kelvin Ellis Jr. recalls telling Busbice. “…I always wanted to help a homeless person, and I finally had the opportunity.”
That dollar bill came from his father for Kelvin’s good grades.
Little did he know that Busbice was not a homeless man but a millionaire. He has developed several outdoor brands that have been sold in deals together worth more than 100 million dollars.
Busbice offered to buy Kelvin breakfast but first Kelvin went back to the eyeglass store to ask permission from his father. His father okayed it. As the two sat and talked over breakfast, Busbice decided to reward the boy with a shopping trip.
As a reward, Busbice took Ellis for a snack at the coffee house, then surprised him with a 40-second shopping spree in the sporting goods store BuckFeather, which he currently runs.
Among smaller items, Ellis grabbed a compound bow and a new bike, but said none of it is what he had planned to spend his money on.
Kelvin just wanted to give a homeless man a dollar. “Joy, because I helped someone. Give something away, and you feel like you’ve got a lot of things from it.”
His parents have done a good job with that boy. Busbice said that Kelvin restored his faith in humanity.
I’ll say this, though. As a mom who raised a son, I can’t imagine allowing him, as a 9-year-old, to go to a coffee shop alone. My son is a grown man now but even then there were too many stories of pedophiles in society. Kelvin showed no fear walking up to who he thought was a homeless man with no other people around. Fortunately, the encounter worked out.
It’s a nice story about the goodness in people. It is good to see some hope in the upcoming generation. And, according to the reporter, the story happened on Good Friday.
Here is the video: