Last week, when Boys and Girls Club Wareham Unit Director Barbara Sullivan learned that a Wareham family, which has been going through a difficult period, has also been without a working stove for weeks, she blasted an e-mail to everyone in her e-mail address book to see if there was anyone in town who could offer some help.

Sullivan was not expecting the response she received.

"It happened so fast," Sullivan said. "The next thing I know, there was some chatter on the e-mail, people were working on it, and then I got a call from Mark Andrews, Town Administrator."

Andrews and the Board of Selectmen had been working with Steve Morrison, owner of Sears, on his move from Cranberry Plaza to the Jordan Plaza on Cranberry Highway. Andrews thought maybe Morrison would be able to help.

"I thought that maybe they'd damaged something" due to the move, and would be able to donate a slightly imperfect, or reconditioned, stove to the family, Andrews said.

So Andrews set up a conference call, and he and Sullivan told Morrison the family's story.

"Before the last words were out of my mouth, [Morrison] said, 'We can deliver on Saturday,'" Sullivan recalled.

And Morrison did better than a reconditioned stove. He was able to donate a brand new one.

"The timing worked out that there was something new available," said Morrison, who was very humble about the whole thing. "We've got our grand reopening coming up on Saturday" and wanted to "do something good," he explained.

Andrews extended his thanks to Morrison. "We're celebrating as a town for a grand opening coming up, [and] Mr. Morrison, his heart just opened up," he said.

The family, whose identity is being withheld for privacy reasons, received the stove last Thursday, two days early.

Sullivan said she was grateful to Morrison and was thrilled with the community's response, though she wasn't exactly surprised.

"That's one thing about Wareham. This community is something else," Sullivan explained. "When they know there is a need, they just rise to the occasion."