MONROE — Emotions ran thick the day Theresa Robertson simply hopped online to check the weather.

It wasn’t long before the internet had pulled her attention to a story of a 5-year-old boy, Dominic May of Madison, who died after being hit by a car in July. 

She read Madison Police Chief Mike Koval’s blog post as well — a tribute to the young man he encountered days before his death where he learned of his dreams to become a police officer. 

It especially resonated with the Monroe mother, who also has a 5-year-old son, and her husband, Cody, is a sheriff’s deputy for the Green County Sheriff’s Department. 

“I didn’t want me being upset or me being sad about reading his story to be the last thing that came from it,” Robertson said. “I wanted something good to happen from it.”

Robertson felt for the mother who lost her son as well — the only thing she truly knew they had in common were two boys getting ready to make a momentous leap in their small world and start kindergarten. 

When she made her way to May’s obituary — she noticed that all the family asked was for people to donate school supplies to a kindergarten class for children in need.

“It’s easy for me as a parent to empathize with stories like this,” Robertson said. “But it’s not very often I feel like there’s anything I can do about it.” 

Robertson reached out to Monroe kindergarten teachers asking what sort of school supplies they needed and compiled a list of crayons, folders, backpacks, paint, markers, books and games. 

After reaching out to May’s mother, Meghan May, and receiving her blessing, Robertson began contacting family members for help and then took her plight to social media.

After an overwhelming response, she continued to add to the list.

“We were amazed to see how Dominic’s story was affecting others,” Meghan said. “We were honored that someone wanted to help — all because of Dominic and his story.”

With the hope of spreading the word about collecting the school supplies, Robertson used social media to reach out to one of her favorite celebrities via Twitter. Clayne Crawford, a star in the TV series Lethal Weapon, ended up sharing her tweet and asked others for prayers and support. 

A few days later brought surprise to Robertson, who received a package via Amazon filled with school supplies from Crawford’s wife, Sunshine Kiki Brown. 

Robertson’s actions went further than planned, and she gathered enough school supplies for all eight kindergarten classes in the Monroe School District. She hopes to continue the tradition — choosing a school within the county to donate toward the grade Dominic would have started. 

Next year, she plans to collect supplies for first graders in the Black Hawk school district — where Robertson graduated — to keep honoring the little boy.

It’s not so much collecting supplies that has been Robertson’s objective throughout this process. She said her goal is truly to spread positivity in Dominic’s name. 

“I want people to just do good things and not be so passive,” Robertson said. “With all the negativity in the news lately, I feel like that’s all we see. You don’t have to do something huge — you can do little things to help your community even if it just helps one person.”

Robertson explained May’s story to her own 5-year-old, Merric, who was graciously happy to help with the school supplies. 

“I wanted it to be special so Dominic would be happy for the things we’ve done for him, so all the classrooms can remember him when he’s not there,” Merric said. “We got stuff so every classroom could remember Dominic and we’re going to put names on them so they know what his name was.”