The dollar may be suffering, but in the hands of the parishioners at Calvary Baptist Church, a little turned into a lot.

Mary Schofield, center, stands with her 20 hams at Bashas’ with butchers Jim McDonald, left, and Dale Chapin. Submitted Photo.

A few weeks ago, about 800 members of the church were each handed envelopes containing anywhere from $1 to $100. They were instructed to do what they pleased to help the community. What followed was several good deeds throughout Lake Havasu City, done simply in the spirit of giving, church officials said.

“We’ve heard so many amazing stories about people turning their money into so much more,” Co-Pastor Sean Haynes said. “Handing the money out was our way of saying, ‘God has blessed you today. What are you going to do with it?’ The results were amazing.”

Mary Schofield received $50 from the church, but wanted to give more. So Schofield called family and friends and gathered about $200. Her only goal was to come up with something that would benefit the most possible people.

“The night before I decided, I couldn’t sleep because I was so excited to get it back to the community,” she said. “It was the first time I had ever been handed anything like this so I wanted to do the most good.”

Knowing the Lake Havasu Community Food Bank was low on supplies, Schofield decided to buy as much food as possible.

“I know they needed hams so I spoke with the people at Bashas’ and we tried to see how much we could give,” she said. “It was really great how many people were willing to help when they heard about what we were doing.”

Schofield bought 20 five-pound hams from Bashas’ for the food bank, which will feed about 20 families. Customer Service Manager John Von Kolen said he had never heard of a church parlaying money into something much bigger.

“I thought that was pretty neat,” Von Kolen said. “I know a lot of people do charitable things but never heard of anything like this. I thought it was great that (Schofield) was helping people in the community. Especially this year, because getting food for a lot of families has been pretty rough.”

Patty Teeples and her family received $1 from the church and also wanted to do much more. She, her daughter and mother decided to anonymously make a couple families happy at a local restaurant.

“When we got there, we told the cashier that we would be paying for the people behind us,” Teeples said. “We didn’t want anyone to know it was us. We just asked her to say, ‘God bless you’ and pass it on. It was a lot of fun. So we did it again.”

Karen Erwin received $10 and her husband received $1. Carrying over the theme of turning the money into more, they too asked family and friends to chip in to each donate the same $11.

“We turned it into more than $450,” Erwin said. “People gave us donations anywhere from that $11 all the way to $100.”

Erwin then remembered she had received a flier from the Blue Star Mothers asking for donations to help troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“When I read about it, it made my heart sink. We were so touched at how many people wanted to help out the troops that we knew we had to give it to them,” she said. “The generosity we got from other people and how this all started is just so amazing.”

Haynes said he’s continued to receive calls about what people did with the money.

“I talked to a different group who decided to buy livestock for families in Africa and I talked to another businessman who adopted a family from Interagency and bought holiday presents for them,” Haynes said. “People have taken this idea and run with it. It’s been wonderful and we can’t wait to hear how this carries over to other people giving as well.”

You can contact the reporter at nbruttell@havasunews.com