Author Topic: A Feel-Good Story that Involves Money  (Read 1725 times)

lizzie

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A Feel-Good Story that Involves Money
« on: January 26, 2015, 08:00:05 PM »
If you're not familiar with Humans of New York, you should be. It's one of the most consistently positive and heartwarming things on the Internet. It's a photo blog by a young man named Brandon Stanton who was a bond trader in Chicago until he was laid off a few years ago and decided to take up photography and travel around taking photos.

He made his way to New York and began taking street photos of people he chanced to meet. He posts them along with little snippets of interviews he conducts. He must be a masterful interviewer; people really open up to him and say the funniest, saddest, most moving things. He's been doing this for several years now. (Apologies for explaining something so famous but my coworkers were unfamiliar with HONY, which surprised me.)

Anyway, about a week ago he encountered a teenager in a housing project. The young man first recounted witnessing a horrific act of violence as a young boy. He and Brandon must've hit it off especially well, because Brandon did a second photo. With the second photo, the boy opened up about a person he admired--his school principal.

His account of her was so positive that, a few days later, Brandon found his way to the school to meet her. He was impressed with her and decided to ask his fans to contribute to a fundraiser for the school. That was four days ago. They just passed the $700,000 mark. Along the way he's been profiling various teachers and students.

If you feel like you need your faith in humanity restored, you could do a lot worse than checking out this story; it's really something. HONY's primary platform is Facebook, but he has a regular webpage too.

caliq

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Re: A Feel-Good Story that Involves Money
« Reply #1 on: January 26, 2015, 08:22:13 PM »
Wow, that's awesome!  I really enjoy reading the HONY stories that pop up on my Facebook, they always seem to put things into perspective or offer a new way of looking at something. 

homehandymum

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Re: A Feel-Good Story that Involves Money
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2015, 11:31:18 PM »
Thanks for sharing this lizzie.  I'd seen the first interview with the principal on my fb, but hadn't seen the original interviews with the boy.

galliver

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Re: A Feel-Good Story that Involves Money
« Reply #3 on: January 29, 2015, 12:17:44 AM »
I've been following the whole story and think it's awesome (donated a small sum, too). The original goal of the fundraiser hit me hard, not sure why, maybe working with outreach in/with organizations like SWE and NSBE. You can't aspire to what you don't see.

The fundraiser isn't even halfway done, btw! https://life.indiegogo.com/fundraisers/let-s-send-kids-to-harvard

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!