Mom’s homemade manta ray brings viral support
McLoud woman repurposes blanket as gift for son, 5
A single mom in McLoud is being flooded with support from around the globe after a post about the hand-sewn stuffed manta ray she made for her son, Jonas, grew popular on one of the world’s largest online forums.
Two weeks before her son’s fifth birthday on Aug. 16, Tiffany Holloway realized she didn’t have enough money to afford a new manta ray plush toy requested by Jonas.
Holloway repurposed Jonas’s baby blanket into a new manta ray design using old thread and a couple of blouse buttons. Proud of how it turned out, she shared a photo of the hand-sewn manta ray to the Reddit poverty finance page, where people with low income often exchange alternative birthday gift ideas.
“I thought maybe I would get teased because of its wonky little eyes,” she said. “Within three hours, it was the top post on all of Reddit, and people were telling me the stories of their own moms and how they grew up in poverty and how they related to it.”
Reddit users asked Holloway if they could send her more gifts for her son’s birthday. In the days since she agreed, packages of manta ray plushies have been arriving at the Holloway home from as far away as Australia.
“We’re talking about a tower of boxes,” Holloway said. “We could not wait until his birthday to open these because Jonas was so excited. He’s just been thrilled, and he’s named every single one. There’s more manta than bed at this point.”
The gifts did not stop at stuffed animals. One anonymous Redditor, using a $100 gift card, funded a trip for Holloway and her four children to the Blue Zoo Aquarium in Oklahoma City.
Another Redditor, Jennifer Prokop, a water plant treatment operator in Boulder, Colorado, arranged for the Holloway family to visit the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden. Jonas was able to feed and touch stingrays — a birthday first.
“It was true love and care that went into that first stuffed animal,” Prokop said. “Tiffany did something so beautiful for her kid, and I’m sure Jonas is going to love that manta ray forever, more than anything else. But I think that it inspired other people to do something good in return.”
In conversation with Holloway, Prokop found out the level of financial hardship she’d been experiencing. She’d been divorced for two years and was struggling to make ends meet while studying to be an EMT. Upon learning her vehicle had broken down, Prokop started a GoFundMe on Aug. 19 to raise funds to cover car repairs and homeschooling costs.
“For a couple of days, I was just emailing my friends and family and sending the link, and donations were trickling in but it really just felt like it was all my initial donation,” Prokop said. “And then I woke up (Monday), and it was suddenly at $10,000, and as the day progressed, it kept on getting higher and higher. I’ve never experienced anything like this.”
As of Tuesday, the GoFundMe crossed the $35,000 mark, well above its original goal of $2,500.
“To be the conduit for such good is just so humbling, and I’m just so grateful,” Prokop said. “I hope this gives Tiffany a great head start for her and her family.”
Holloway, who’s been a part of the broader Reddit community for a decade, said she did not anticipate the post of the homemade manta ray getting as much attention as it has.
“I didn’t post it on the subreddit (online forum) expecting anything,” she said. “That subreddit is for celebrating your successes, like if you pay off a debt, or just venting about how hard it is to be in poverty, and it’s about how to plan for the future with what you have.”
Jonas idolizes Steve Irwin, the late conservationist known popularly as “The Crocodile Hunter” who died 15 years ago at the barb of a stingray. The Holloway family has wanted to use the increased attention recently given to them as a way to bolster support for Wildlife Warriors, Irwin’s conservation fund.
“I know (Jonas) wants to grow up and rescue animals like Steve Irwin,” Holloway said. “But I had to reach out to (Irwin’s foundation) to ask for permission, and I was a little concerned. … What they said was that Steve would have absolutely never wanted anyone to hate stingrays, and that we were more than welcome to mention their conservation.”
Holloway said she is most grateful to the community, both local and elsewhere, for reminding her children, as well as herself, that there is still good in the world.
“When I made this manta ray, I was feeling like a total failure,” she said. “I was sitting on my couch, thinking, ‘How could I not even have enough to get my baby a birthday present, even something so small?’ But after this happened —all of these people sharing their stories of their parents, and then to see the happiness on my son’s face — this has been a reminder to me that a lot of people are in the same situation we are, and that there is hope in community.”
“To these people, it might just be a stuffed animal. But to my son, it’s a reminder that he’s loved, that people care about him, that things are going to be OK,” Holloway said.
“To these people, it might just be a stuffed animal. But to my son, it’s a reminder that he’s loved, that people care about him, that things are going to be OK.” Tiffany Holloway