WTAE Pittsburgh – Thursday, December 7, 2017
A Fayette County business owner is hoping his random act of kindness will catch on.
Garly Nicklow, who owns Smitty’s Bar and Grill in Uniontown (Dive Bar Trail #25,624), paid off school lunch debt for students at Marshall Elementary School.
Jason Johns, the principal at Marshall, said even he felt like a kid on Christmas: “Within an hour, he was here dropping off a check to cover all the the bills for all of the students in the building.”
Nicklow wrote a check for over $700. In a statement, he said, “We just held a benefit for a national organization, but we wanted to do something else to directly help those in our community. We started to plan something for the 23rd, but I figured, why wait? Let’s do something now and take a little worry off the families so they can put that money towards their families.
“We decided to share it to inspire other local business owners to do the same for their local schools, homeless shelters, animal shelters, churches, etc. in their areas. We’re a little place, but still managed to donate over $6,000 this year in money and goods. It doesn’t take long, and there is no reason others can’t do the same.
“Without the communities, the businesses wouldn’t be there.”
Eric Gaydos, director of food services at Marshall, says the gift is huge for them.
“All of our buildings are above the 40 percent threshold for free or reduced lunches, so something like this is extremely beneficial and extremely helpful,” Gaydos said