ST. LOUIS • The power of kindness was on full display Thursday when hundreds rallied around a University of Missouri-Columbia employee.

It took an hour, if that, for a crowdfunding website set up by a few Mizzou fraternity members to reach its $500 goal.

By then, the story was taking on a life of its own on social media, and the fundraising amount continued to climb to more than $5,000.

The students wanted to raise some money for Sandy Cunningham, a Mizzou dining hall employee. A write-up accompanying the fundraising page states that the students asked Cunningham what she would want for Christmas. She told them gift cards to buy gifts for her grandchildren.

Max Keeter, a sophomore and president of Mizzou’s Phi Delta Theta, said some of the newly reorganized fraternity set the page up Thursday on their own.

“We were definitely not expecting that much,” he said. “Everyone just wants to help others out and I think campus climate could use more of this.”