A Texas community answered a mother’s call for help after no-one showed up to her 9-year-old’s birthday party.
Samantha Chamberlain says she organized a party for her daughter at a Pizza Hut in Kingsville, 40 miles southwest of Corpus Christi, and put a great deal of effort into the planning.
The date was all set for February 28 and her daughter Eisley Marquez was looking forward to her party, her mom told KRIS 6 News.
“She was really excited,” Chamberlain said, having been unable to make her party last year due to work. “She was just kind of anticipating, ‘Are you guys going to be done decorating by the time that people get here?’”
However, 30 minutes into the party, no guests had arrived.
“I kind of felt like I failed a little bit, and I know that’s not right, but I kind of felt like I failed her,” Chamberlain said. “Because here I am, finally able to make the birthday party, and nobody’s here.”
But rather than see her daughter disappointed she quickly turned to social media and asked local residents if they would like to stop by.
Shortly after, the restaurant was flooded with well-wishers, some of whom even brought gifts.
“I got Pokémon cards, I got slime, I got toys,” Eisley told KRIS 6 News.
Eventually, so many people showed up to the event that Chamberlain began to worry that she might not be able to pay for them all.
“This place that we’re in right now was full, it was filled with people,” she said, speaking from the pizza restaurant. “I started thinking, my goodness, if everybody, you know, comes, there’s no way that I’m going to be able to afford all this.”
Eisley told KRIS 6 News that she loved her party.
“I think it went great, maybe a little bit better than great,” she said.
Chamberlain later uploaded a post to Facebook, in which she thanked her neighbors for making her daughter’s birthday special.
“When I was trying to say thank you in the end to everyone who stayed, I totally fumbled and started crying haha but the point was THANK YOU SO MUCH WE ARE ENDLESSLY GRATEFUL to everyone who stopped by whether they stayed or not, contributed, helped with clean-up, ALL Y’ALL,” she wrote.
“The world is hard, but people are good.”
