A New Jersey man never believed that his joke about throwing a Wal-Mart self-checkout employee party would draw so much interest, but when it did, he decided to transform the event into a toy drive this Christmas season.
According to the New York Post, Drew Delgado created a mock Facebook event page to host a self-checkout employee party for Dec. 15 at the Lanoka Harbor Wal-Mart location.
The open event stated, “Celebrating another successful year of picking, paying, and bagging your own groceries while actual employees just stand around and check receipts.”
As of Thursday, over 45,000 people have responded to this jest, and tens of thousands have displayed an interest in actually attending.
This gave Delgado an idea. He posted, “What if … I was to organize a big toy drive where we have a Santa Claus and then we all purchase toys from the store, pile them outside and then donate them to whatever children happen to come to the store?”
“I genuinely believe that something good can come from this. Times are tough for a lot of people. I think this would be perfect,” he added.
Delgado now has two Elks lodges involved to help host the event, as well as an Amazon wish list and a list for the Popcorn Park Zoo.
He also posted an update, stating, “As always, thank you guys and please share this post (and event) with your friends and family so that we can get our neighbors and animal friends what they need this year.”
The Lacy Elks Lodge posted the event to its page as well and noted, “Should be a nice night for all the right reasons.”
Delgado’s wife, Nancy, expressed her surprise at how the event has developed. The Guardian reported she said the “event was created purely as a joke,” and “Andrew thought only a few people would see it and think it was a funny thing.”
Now that it has become a toy drive, she also noted that she and her husband plan to make this an annual charity event.