Nationwide — When Kayla Howard, a single mom of four sons from Phoenix, Arizona, found her bank account emptied after her 7-year-old son mistakenly made purchases on Roblox, people from across the nation began making online donations to help them.
Kayla’s son, who has autism, was playing the popular game Roblox when he accidentally made multiple purchases amounting to $897. It exceeded the balance in her bank account which resulted in overdraft fees and a more than $1,000 negative balance in her account.
Kayla, who is a single mom, works two jobs to support her 4 children, of which 3 have autism. She started a GoFundMe page to help cover her expenses. She set the goal to $1,244, the exact amount her account was negative.
Howard was surprised when she saw that they raised ten times the goal. She found support from complete strangers who are also single moms and parents of children with autism and some who could relate to the Roblox spending mistake. She ultimately received a total of $10,979.
“Thank you to everyone who supported myself and my children during this time. Thank you for reminding me that there are good people in this world,” Howard told Good Morning America.
Howard said she used some of the money to buy a Christmas tree to decorate with her kids. She also bought gifts for them. She now plans to use the extra donations to give back to the community.
“What I’m most excited about doing is actually starting a non-profit named after my daughter specifically to help families of children with autism,” she said. Moreover, Howard said Roblox, which initially only agreed to a $10.80 refund, have since refunded her money after her story gained attention. She also said that she has since made necessary changes to the Roblox apps on her children’s devices to prevent the mistake from happening again.