11-year-old Zach Stone was out school shopping last month with his mother Malisa at a local Ross store in Meridian, Idaho, when he reminded her that he needed new tennis shoes, his old ones were falling apart.
Malisa, a single mom with two boys, says the family is on a tight budget, so she told Zach he could get new shoes, but he had a budget of just $20.
A man was in the store shopping for shoes himself when he overheard this conversation. The man asked Zach what kind of shoes he was looking for, and Zach responded that he just wanted something 'comfortable.' The man told Zach to pick out any shoes he wanted, and not to worry about the price, because he was paying for them.
Zach picked out a snazzy pair of Puma's...because he said they were really comfortable.
Malisa said she was so grateful for the man's kindness that after they all left the store, she snapped a photo of Zach with the man and posted in on Facebook so let the world know about the kindness a total stranger showed them. The post went viral, with thousands of comments and shares. A co-worker of the man, whose name is Lito Mason, made him aware of the post and Lito could not believe the attention it was getting. The post got the attention of local news station KTVB who tracked down Lito and made him one of their 'Seven's News Heroes.'
Lito told KTVB he did it simply because
"I wanted to show the kid that this world still has nice people in it. I didn't realize this was going to be a big deal"