How to become a Layaway Angel

As Karen Blodget shopped through Kmart, we talked to her about a little known Christmas program.

“I think it’s a wonderful thing to do to help people who can’t help themselves,” Karen Blodget said.

The Layaway Angel program let’s you do just that – pay off someone’s layaway bill. It started in 2011 when someone paid off the layaway balance for a total stranger at a Kmart store. The story caught on, and it started happening all over the country.

These are three stores honoring this Angel program and their deadlines:

Kmart – no deadline, with the exception of seasonal items like wrapping paper and decorations which must be paid by December 1st.

Walmart – december 14th

Toys ‘R Us – December 16th

Thousands of people in the Coachella Valley use layaway programs every year to buy their Christmas gifts. Blodget really got inspired.

“Since you told me about this, I might go buy someone’s layaway right now,” Blodget said.

Sure enough, she walked right over to the layaway counter.

“I want to pay for someone’s layaway,” she said.

It’s really that simple of a process. You can pay off an entire layaway or just pick an amount to donate.

“Everybody should come now to do this. Obviously it’s for the kids, there are toys in there,” Blodget said. “I feel really good. I feel like crying.”

“A lot of people come from not just here in Indio, Coachella, but from Palm Springs, Palm Desert. T the entire valley came to our store last year and really helped out with this,” Corey Reeve, the Indio Kmart store manager, said.

“I feel like I’ll make someone happy for Christmas,” Blodget said.

To the kids who will never know karen, but will now know what it feels like to wake up to these presents on Christmas, she says this.

“Just enjoy. Enjoy what you’re getting. That’s all I can say,” Blodget said.

Proving Christmas miracles really do happen.