Imagine the surprise at Neighborhood House of Milwaukee when dozens and dozens of gifts came pouring in from complete strangers!

In tracking this phenomenon down, it turns out this largess is due to Celtics Fans! In the run up to tonight’s NBA play-off game, a Twitter flame war erupted between Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics fans. As things were getting ugly, one Celtics fan asked all involved to raise the discourse by doing some good.

This Celtics fan, @SteveMerkle9 wrote, “We could spend the next week going back and forth over who has the worst fans, or we could turn this into a positive, here is a link to a charity that does great work in the milwaukee area, please donate whatever you can. Retweet and post your donations.” (link: https://www.neighborhoodhousemke.org/donate/) neighborhoodhousemke.org/donate/”

Fellow Celtics fans responded in force, many of whom sent Merkle screen shots of their donation receipts. One tweet said, “This is beautiful & amazing… & this should be a thing we try and do with every playoff opponent we face…”

“At first we were a little confused and thought it might be a scam of some sort. But we soon found out what this Celtics fan did for us and his peers rose to his challenge. It’s been a wonderful day for the 3,500 children and families we serve,” emphasized Neighborhood House Executive Director, Jeff Martinka. “We are very grateful to this challenge and @SteveMerkle9. We have no idea how he selected Neighborhood House, but he personifies what we work to instill in the children we serve. Good character, doing good for others, and great sportsmanship; qualities that make us good and productive citizens. We just hope we can thank him properly for what he’s inspired.”

More than $1,000 was raised in just over six hours.