A man from Gulf Breeze, a city in northwest Florida who had a bad memory of Christmas because he was cold with his daughters, decided to pay utility bills for several families for the third year in a row.
Mike Esmond, 75, returned to the Christmas party last week, paying the bills for 29 families, totaling around $85,000 (75,000 euros), according to the British Guardian newspaper. Local TV 10.
In December 2019, Mike Esmond, the owner of a Pensacola pool cleaning company, paid 36 home utility bills to avoid running out of electricity, water, or gas over Christmas, as he did in 1983.
Then, after donating about $12,000 (€10,593) over the past two Christmas seasons to pay basic utility bills for Gulf Breeze residents, Mike Esmond received a check from the “A Nut Above” campaign. [Uma Noz Acima], from Planters Confectionery Company, for being a good Samaritan.
Since early 2021, Mike Esmond has used cash checks, $104,000 (91807 euros), to help Gulf Breeze families at risk of having their services cut off, paying 667 bills totaling $80,000 (70,621 euros), location details 10.
“In other words, I paid everyone’s bill late for a while, between March and August” for six straight months, said Mike Esmond, a US Army veteran.
No heating at minus 12 degrees
In December 1983, temperatures reached minus 12 degrees Celsius according to Weather Underground and Mike Esmond and his three daughters ran out of electricity and heating because he couldn’t pay his bills.
“That year we had no heat and it was the lowest temperature ever recorded in Pensacola,” he told the Pensacola News Journal, noting that there was ice hanging on the windows.
