Christmas comes early for Taber woman

IGA customers rally with gifts and cash for single mom

The hunt was on last week and what was found was the power of the human spirit. A Taber woman who works at Taber IGA has received more than $4,000 in gifts, including months of rent paid, by customers looking to show their appreciation by giving her a Christmas for the ages.

Lots of working families struggle this time of year, and Stacey Maddin is no different.

A single mother Maddin rents from Lindsay Anderson’s family. Anderson said while they have only known Maddin a short time, the woman has had an impact in numerous people’s lives.

“She is just always consistently friendly and my four kids decided they’d pay her rent for December and surprise her,” said Anderson.

Her plan was to find 42 people willing to donate $15 each, so Maddin’s December and January rent could be covered.

“And then everything went crazy from there,” said Anderson.

The efforts of Anderson and her children revealed just how many people Maddin has touched simply by providing a smile to each and every time a customer walks into IGA.

“She has no idea how much she affects people every day in that store,” said Anderson. “There’s been hundreds of comments and I had a book made for her of all the texts of experiences they have had with her going through the till. There are people who have stopped shopping at other stores, and exclusively shop there and their children watch for her.”

The Christmas Surprise for Stacey netted three months of paid rent and $1,700 worth of gift cards to local businesses and $500 cash. In total, a campaign that started off with a $650 goal blossomed to $4,100.

“There are all kinds of circles of people that go to IGA that she has helped,” said Anderson. “When one reads all the comments about her, she is an employee that makes a real difference.”

With the outpouring of support, Anderson decided to turn the giving into a treasure hunt throughout the IGA store.

Each clue had a gift card attached to it, and said something nice about Maddin and how she has touched people’s lives.

The last clue was in the lobby of IGA and came with the cash gift and the rent money. Maddin was met in the lobby by a group of people to wish her a Merry Christmas.

“Surprise wasn’t the word for it. I had no clue, I was completely in the dark,” said Maddin.

Maddin has four children and three granddaughters and said it has been tough to make ends meet.

“This experience blew me away not realizing that in a small town, simply a ‘hi,’ or ‘how are you doing?’ makes a difference with a lot of people. I’m at a loss for words.”

Maddin has been in Taber for just over two years and she says she already feels at home.

“It’s great, I love Taber,” she said. “The people here are so friendly. And seeing this, it shows people have good hearts.

“I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Thank you, this means the world to me and my kids also say thank you and can’t believe it happened.”

A link to a YouTube video of the experience can be found at