Philanthropy
Although he had also donated money to community charities in Kansas City and his hometown of Bruce, Mississippi, he believed in handing out cash directly to people in need because it is something people do not have to, as he said, "beg for, get in line for, or apply for."
He made his fortune through cable television and long-distance calling. Stewart successfully kept his identity hidden until 2006, when he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, which later claimed his life. Many suspected that his illness was the reason he decided to "out" himself, but according to Stewart, this is untrue. In an interview on the Dave Ramsey Radio Show, Stewart said he came out because a tabloid was about to reveal his identity, and he wanted to tell his own story before they did.
Stewart's acts of kindness were not restricted to the Kansas City area. He has traveled to other metropolitan areas during times of local tragedy. He went to New York in 2001 after September 11, and to Mississippi in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina devastated the area. After his illness, he began "training" other secret Santas, who were scheduled to give out $65,000 during the 2006 holiday season, in addition to the money Stewart gave out.
Stewart was given a free dinner from owner Ted Horn at Dixie Diner in 1971 when he was down on his luck, allegedly inspiring Stewart's personal tradition. This in turn began with an impromptu act of kindness by Stewart. He was fired just before Christmas two years in a row, both in 1978 and 1979. Around Christmas of 1979, while nursing his wounds at a drive-in restaurant during a very cold day, he noticed a carhop working the cars outside. He recalled, "It was cold and this car hop didn't have on a very big jacket, and I thought to myself, 'I think I got it bad. She's out there in this cold making nickels and dimes.'" He gave her $20 and told her to keep the change. "And suddenly I saw her lips begin to tremble and tears begin to flow down her cheeks. She said, 'Sir, you have no idea what this means to me.'"
His philanthropy has been supported and recognized by a number of well-known people, including Buck O'Neil, George Brett, Oprah Winfrey, and, in 2006 in Chicago, Dick Butkus (who had helped Larry as an "elf" since 2003).
Read more about this topic: Larry Stewart (philanthropist)
Famous quotes containing the word philanthropy:
“Almost every man we meet requires some civility,—requires to be humored; he has some fame, some talent, some whim of religion or philanthropy in his head that is not to be questioned, and which spoils all conversation with him. But a friend is a sane man who exercises not my ingenuity, but me.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I shall not be forward to think him mistaken in his method who quickest succeeds to liberate the slave. I speak for the slave when I say that I prefer the philanthropy of Captain Brown to that philanthropy which neither shoots me nor liberates me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... the hey-day of a woman’s life is on the shady side of fifty, when the vital forces heretofore expended in other ways are garnered in the brain, when their thoughts and sentiments flow out in broader channels, when philanthropy takes the place of family selfishness, and when from the depths of poverty and suffering the wail of humanity grows as pathetic to their ears as once was the cry of their own children.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)