Anonymous Friend

An Anonymous Friend has made the front headlines of CNN with the title: "Rust Belt City gets $100 million anonymous gift." Fox News has this story, and even the AP picked up on it.

What's the Rust Belt? Ever hear of the Pittsburgh Steelers? It's a clue. About two hours north of where the Three Rivers meet, there's a smaller town located on the southern shore of Lake Erie bearing the same name. Erie, according to CNN, used to be a bustling industrial town but has seen an increase in the poverty level, that over the national average, and resorted to promoting themselves as a tourist town, complete with brand-new casino. (Of course, they wouldn't mention that it has one of the most popular parks in state, that there is an unbelievably low costs of living, and that the housing market has nary been affected, unlike the poor folks in California who were living on doomed subprime mortgages. A city were the Colts' Bob Sanders made his beginnings, where Tom Ridge comes from, where Sharon Stone grew up near.)

Erie papers carried this news nearly a month ago. It's that long ago that Erie (and probably surrounding areas) knew about this act of kindness and incredible generosity. The original article ran on October 6, and Sharla Bordin of the Erie Times-News reports:

An anonymous donor has made history in Erie County.

The Erie Community Foundation has received $100 million from the donor, the largest charitable gift ever received by an Erie County organization, foundation President Mike Batchelor said Friday.

The gift also is believed to be one of the largest anonymous contributions to a community foundation in the nation.

"It will literally change our community forever," Batchelor said.

Most people in Erie probably want to know who made the donation, but feel it's nearly sinful to ask who. The person specifically asked to remain anonymous, as well as their association to Erie, and if they are even alive. Some have theories as to who it is.

No matter who it was, it was a spectacular amount of money, an act of generosity that made history across the nation. Someone who so dearly loved Erie, this little Rust Belt City That Was.