Twitter gets a lot of stick for not always being the most welcoming place on the internet.

But when a story was shared on the site detailing how nobody attended a young soon-to-be mum’s baby shower, Twitter got a chance to show its more inspirational side.

Dorthy Holmes had been tasked with putting the shower together for her friend Chelsie Collins last weekend. The pair bought decorations and games, stayed up all night making posters and spatter painting balloons, and invited a lot of people.

But sadly, nobody turned up. The event was due to start at midday on Saturday but Dorthy, her boyfriend and Chelsie were only there until 1:30 before deciding to call it a day.

“We created a Facebook event weeks prior to the event and invited over 70 people. The majority were so called ‘friends’ that we went to high school with,” Dorthy, who like Chelsie is from Zanesville, Ohio, said.

“We posted in the event numerous times and got no comments – only a few people marked that they were interested. When the day came nobody showed up.”

A few hours later Dorthy shared what had happened on Twitter and people were outraged.

Within 20 minutes Dorthy had been asked for a link to Chelsie’s gift list as people offered to donate gifts and clothes for baby Peighton, who’s due on September 25.

Prior to the tweet not one gift on Chelsie’s list had been purchased, but as it racked up more and more retweets things were flying off the list.

At the time of writing 333 gifts have been bought from the Walmart list alone.

Chelsie, 19, said: “At first I was sad, I felt embarrassed and alone… Then when I heard about the online support it made me feel so much better.

“There is so many supporters from Twitter to Facebook and I’m thankful for that.”

Dorthy and Chelsie, at the back (Dorthy Holmes)Dorthy and Chelsie, at the back (Dorthy Holmes)

There are a few gifts left on Chelsie’s registry, but with Walmart having been in touch that might not be the case for long.

And as if all that wasn’t generous enough Chelsie and Dorthy have also been invited to free maternity shoots in New York and Las Vegas, as well as to a cookout in Georgia.

“I was honestly in complete shock,” said Dorthy.

It turns out Twitter can do amazing things.