The online community blasted Walmart for forcing a U.S. Marine veteran out of the store, making him collect donations for the annual Toys for Tots campaign in the blistering cold.
The Marine refused to abandon his mission and quietly followed the orders given by the store. And then a photo of him standing outside in full uniform, for six hours in 40-degree weather, went viral…
People might remember a 2015 incident where a photo of U.S. Marine veteran John Harkness attracted a flood of hate for a Walmart store in Medina, Ohio.
Harkness was at the location, accepting donations from generous shoppers wanting to support the Marine Corp Toys for Tots program, a charity that for almost 80 years, played Santa Claus to more than 291 million disadvantaged children across the United States.
Harkness, then 69, had been collecting donations inside the Walmart in Medina for 14 years, according to Fox 8.
Then, on November 28, 2015, when Harkness and his wife Lynn started raising money for the Toys for Tots charity inside, both were kicked out by a new store manager, who demanded the couple ask for donations outside, in 40-degree weather.
Following his orders, the dedicated veteran left the store and stood beneath an overhang, trying to shelter himself from the chilly elements.
“They said you have to stay outside, you can’t come in the store, we weren’t allowed to stay between the two set of doors, we had to be outside,” the retired Marine told ABC affiliate News 5 at the time. “Well, it was raining, it was cold, but we stood there, I was at one door, my wife was at the other.”
Lynn, the Toys for Tots Coordinator in Medina County, explained that cold can exacerbate the health conditions for several of the elderly volunteers: “We have the Auxiliary and the Marines helping, they are in their 60s most of them and on up,” Lynn told Fox 8. “A couple of the Marines have had cancer surgery, and their health isn’t the best, being out in the bad weather could damage their health.”
Photo sparks outrage
A shopper, identified by Business Insider as Janet Rodin, saw Harkness in full uniform, a tin for donations cradled in his arm, and was shocked he was forced outdoors in the temperatures she described as “brutal.”
“There was a woman who came up to me and said ‘can I take your picture?’ I said sure, so her husband took my picture and she went from there,” Harkness told Fox.
After Rodin left “from there,” she created a firestorm of activity on social media by posting the photo of Harkness on Facebook.
She captioned the now deleted message, “This is an outrage! They have been collecting inside since this store opened but his sacrifice and continued volunteer work in the name of our Marines is rewarded this way?”
The post quickly went viral and attracted comments from outraged people who launched an attack on Walmart’s social media pages.
“Walmart, have you no shame? Making a United States Marine stand outside while collecting toys for the underprivileged. Disgusting!” tweets one user.
“Fire the manager!” writes a second, while many others rallied to boycott the store.
And then the situation became a lot worse when another photo started circulating, this one with the caption: “He can bleed and die but not stand inside!!!!!!”
This post, according to News 5, included the name and number of the manager that told Harkness to leave, information that the online community happily used to deliver threats.
What Walmart said
Meanwhile, Walmart responded to the hate with a statement that explained its policy for “solicitation.”
“If a Marine or anyone was treated with disrespect, that is unacceptable and we are looking into this matter further to get the facts,” the company wrote. “Walmart’s corporate policy across our more than 4500 stores does not allow this type of solicitation inside our stores and we apologize for any confusion about this policy. Most importantly, we are proud to support wonderful organizations like Toys for Tots, Girls and Boys Scouts, the Salvation Army, and the Red Cross who are stationed outside our stores during the Holidays and other times.”
Though the couple expressed their deepest gratitude for all the support, they begged the public to stop assaulting the store and the manager on social media.
“I don’t think that was necessary and I think that was totally out of line and it just does not go with Toys for Tots,” Lynn told News 7. “I hope everybody gets the news to back off and stop threats to the manager…We are working on a better relationship.”
And Harkness wasn’t going to let the incident prevent him from helping kids in the future.
“This is for the kids, it’s not about us. It’s all about the kids,” Harkness said.
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