Giving thanks for compassionate community

This Thanksgiving, some Merrill-area residents were reminded what a compassionate community they live in. And three area women and their families had something extra special and unexpected to be thankful for – the kindness and generosity of a complete stranger who answered their prayers.
It all started on Nov. 4, 2025, with a simple post on the Ask Merrill Facebook page. I had seen it on another page and thought, “Hey, maybe there is someone who needs something I have that I don’t really need anymore, so I could bless them by passing it along.” So I copied and pasted: “What is one thing you NEED that you cannot afford right now? Let’s check and see what others say. Maybe you have it and don’t need it or have a connection to get it.”

Community responds with generosity
Responses started coming in, with people posting things they needed, but also people posting things they had to give away if anyone needed them. Some of the requests were large while others were small. Some were for services — like help patching a hole in their foundation — while others were for diapers, children’s clothing, or even needing new glasses.
And community members responded in kind, providing material needs and answering requests, with one couple even offering to pay for a woman’s eye exam so she could get new glasses.

Unbeknownst to me, a kind and generous stranger was reading the posts and felt called to meet the needs of three of the women who had responded with their needs.
Among those responding to the original post, three local residents specifically needed help with appliances.
Lorali Hill was looking for “A deep freezer any size so we can stock up on food when I get paid.”
Anne Pulkowski responded “A decent working refrigerator for our church’s Foodshare program ... trying to use our budget only for food for the program.”
And Jessica Spark said, “My kids and I have been without a working electric dryer for almost a year and a half now. I both don’t have the funds for it or a way to get one. We’ve just been hanging up clothes to dry on doors, etc., though that’s kinda a big need …”
Each of these respondents was simply hoping someone had spare used appliances they were no longer using but that still had good life in them.
Neither they — nor I — ever dreamed one anonymous person would be the answer to all three of those women’s prayers or that this anonymous donor would feel led to purchase brand new appliances for each of them.
The very next day after I made that initial post, my phone rang. An anonymous woman was calling from Greg’s Gruett’s Appliance in Merrill. She told me she was standing in the store and had just felt called to answer the needs of the three women who had made those specific posts. She had just purchased three appliances – a new freezer, a new refrigerator, and a new dryer. They were already paid for, she said. She asked if I could help get these gifts to the women who needed them and maintain her anonymity.
Needless to say, I was stunned by this woman’s generosity but also thrilled to help facilitate the deliveries and to be able to witness the reactions of the recipients. All three recipients of these newly-purchased appliances were equally stunned to learn they would be receiving new appliances. I reached out to each of the three women to help arrange delivery times, and got their initial shocked reactions.
“I can’t accept this,” Spark said initially, saying it was just too much.
“You have to,” I said with a smile. “It’s already been paid for. Now I just need to know when and where we can get it delivered to you.”
“Thank you, Jesus!” Pulkowski immediately said when I spoke with her.
She was so grateful and thankful to the woman who had answered her prayers.
Hill was equally surprised. “This is absolutely amazing! And super kind of the person doing it!”
On the Facebook post, for each of their requests, I responded so that others would know their needs had been met: “This request is being GRANTED by an anonymous donor who is donating a BRAND NEW [dryer, refrigerator, or freezer] … What a blessed afternoon!”
Those posts, too, generated amazing reactions. “This is wonderful! I can’t stop the tears!” Cindy Artus posted. “What a great community we live in! Hands and feet of Jesus!”
On Friday, Nov. 7, I was privileged to meet each of the women who had submitted their requests, witness the delivery of the appliances, and capture their reactions and learn more about their individual stories. It was definitely a wonderful precursor to the official celebration of Thanksgiving to bear witness to the personal thanksgiving of each of the recipients of these gifts.

A fresh start after hardship
Spark said she moved to Merrill from Stevens Point about three years ago with her two children, leaving an abusive marriage with little more than the clothes on their backs. “I moved here with my kids with just two garbage bags of clothes and a mattress,” Spark said.
She had a washer and dryer in the basement of the home she rented, but the dryer had stopped working almost two years ago. Since then, Spark and her children had been hanging wet laundry on doors and throughout their house to dry.

Spark works as a lead multimedia specialist, but as a single mother paying for everything on her own, a new dryer wasn’t in the budget.
“I’m not very good at asking for help,” Spark said. “I don’t really have family or many friends, and there’s just a handful of people I know in this town, so I’m used to doing things for myself.”
When she saw the Facebook post, she said she hesitated before commenting. But something compelled her to share her need.
“I wasn’t really expecting anything, or I guess I wasn’t really sure what I expected, but this wasn’t it,” she said.
When the dryer was delivered and installed, Spark was overcome with gratitude.
“I have no words besides God is good,” she posted on Facebook. “To say that it’s going to be nice to be able to dry our clothes in under 24 hours is an absolute understatement!”
In a thank you note to the anonymous donor, Spark wrote, “I honestly don’t even know where to start. I’m completely dumbfounded that anyone would do something like this for me. I’m not very good at asking for help.”
She shared a bit of her personal story with the donor, and then said, “People don’t always do these sorts of things for others. There’s too much hate in the world these days.” “But I plan to pay it forward,” Spark said. “I want you to know how much this means to me and my family.”
“Just … thank you!” she said.

From Nevada to Merrill

Hill and her husband Dustin had been praying for a deep freezer. The couple moved to Merrill in March after living in an RV in Nevada for three years.
“My mom passed away, so I had moved outta state ‘cause our landlord gave us a five-day notice after she passed away,” Hill said. Originally from Wisconsin, the couple had moved to Nevada when a friend offered them an RV to live in during COVID.
They returned to Merrill when Hill’s best friend needed someone to officiate her wedding. Hill got certified as an officiant and performed the ceremony. Their friends convinced them to stay in Merrill to be near family and friends.
“It’s a very welcoming town,” Hill said. “You can pass people and they wave while they’re walking. They say hi to you if they pass you. And you run into people at the grocery store; they just talk to you. It’s nice.”
Hill works at a local factory, making a short commute from home to work. But with only the small freezer in their refrigerator, keeping enough food in the house has been a challenge.
“It’s been tough to keep food in the house because you only have a tiny little freezer,” she said. “So you run out of money before you can get more food.”
“We’ve been praying,” Hill said. “My God, it would just be so nice if you would give us a way to get a freezer.” When the deep freezer arrived, the couple was elated. Now they can take advantage of sales and stock up when Hill gets paid.
The week before receiving the freezer, the Hills had been blessed by another community member who bought them groceries for the month through a Facebook group called Generous Hands of Wausau.
“How amazing this small town is,” Hill said. “It’s so amazing.”

A refrigerator for the community
Pulkowski has been coordinating the Foodshare program in Merrill for about 10 years. The program, which started about 15 to 20 years ago at Merrill Bible Church under the direction of Kerri Lokemoen, provides food to families in need once a month on the first Tuesday of the month. Families need to register in advance to participate.
When Highland Community Church adopted the program after they also adopted the Merrill Bible Church congregation, they provided funding and support to keep the program going. The church had purchased two used freezers over the years, but the program had never had a refrigerator for perishable items.
“For many years, our volunteers would take refrigerated items home and bring them back on distribution day,” Pulkowski said. “It’s been just kind of chaotic.”
The program orders food through Feeding America, and deliveries are made to the Neighbors’ Place in Wausau, where volunteers then pick up the orders, and having proper cold storage has been a pressing need for some time.
“I’ve been praying about the fridge for months,” Pulkowski said. “The guys will say, ‘Hey, I saw one on Marketplace for $700.’ I’m like, ‘We don’t have a budget of $700.’”
When she learned a new refrigerator was being donated, Pulkowski was overwhelmed. “I’m just totally floored by that,” she said.
In her thank you note to the anonymous donor, Pulkowski shared how the gift created a ripple effect of generosity.
“Your actions caused reactions,” she wrote. “I don’t have a lot to give, but your donation sparked me to look at other needs in the Facebook post. I was able to connect with two other women to meet a need of theirs.”
Pulkowski helped one woman who needed a baby swing and another who needed diapers. In talking with one of them, she learned the woman’s family also needed food assistance. “We started talking back and forth, and she’s telling me her story and I’m just heartbroken,” Pulkowski said. She put together four boxes of food from the Foodshare program and got the family signed up to receive food every month.
“It is my prayer that in helping meet her physical needs, we were also able to connect on her spiritual needs,” Pulkowski wrote in her thank you note. “God shows me every day how He cares about the details of our lives, down to the tiniest things.”
The Foodshare program is open to anyone in the community who needs assistance. Those interested can contact Highland Community Church - Merrill Campus to sign up. Donations to help fill the new refrigerator and freezers are also welcome.

Kindness without recognition
Shawna Weber, Store Manager at Greg’s Gruett’s Appliance, witnessed the anonymous donor’s generosity firsthand. The woman came into the store and asked Weber to help her find appliances to meet the three Facebook requests.
“It’s not every day you get to be able to witness the kindness of people... especially without the gratification of the ‘attention’ of doing so,” Weber said. “Her to do this anonymously, is just the actions of a pure, genuine heart.”
Weber wrote up the order and helped the donor select the right appliances for each recipient. The donor’s only request was simple: “Pay it forward.”
“We both said... God works in mysterious ways... and this is one,” Weber said.

A community that cares
For all three recipients, the donations represent more than just new appliances. They represent a community that cares, prayers answered, and hope renewed.
Spark summed it up in her thank you note: “It’s really amazing to see a community that helps and supports each other like this and I’m proud to be a part of it.”
Pulkowski echoed that sentiment in her own note to the donor, writing, “I thank you again for listening to His leading & blessing us with this gift. May God bless you richly!”
And the anonymous donor’s message continues to resonate: Pay it forward.
In a world that often feels divided, three families in Merrill experienced something different. They experienced generosity, community, and the simple but powerful truth that sometimes, people do care.