Original story published Thursday June 21, 2012
TORONTO – The community website Reddit has once again shown the altruistic nature of strangers by raising more than $620,000 for a 68-year old New York state bus monitor who was verbally assaulted by children on video.
The video, shot on a cell phone, shows Karen Klein sitting alone on a school bus, being verbally assaulted by children who repeatedly call her fat, sweaty, and ugly.
They hurl insults at the elderly woman for the length of the video – approximately 10 minutes. The video went viral, and as of Thursday afternoon, had been viewed more than 1.6 million times.
“I saw the video online and I almost felt heartbroken to see someone getting abused like that,” Max Sidorov from Toronto said. “I had to do something about it.”
Sidorov created a fundraising effort on the website Indiegogo.com after seeing the video with a goal of raising $5,000 to give to Karen to use for a vacation.
A fellow do-gooder from Cambridge, Mass. has since started a site raising money for Sidorov. That fund has quickly reached over $5,000.
The campaign for Karen began on June 20, and in just over 24 hours had raised over $320,000.
Klein appeared on NBC’s “Today” show Thursday and said that it took “a lot of willpower” to keep relatively calm.
“I’m not usually that calm. Just ask my kids,” Klein said during the interview. “I’m sure they don’t act that way at home, but you never know what they’re going to do when they’re out of the house.”
The outpouring of support from the strangers on the internet has overwhelmed the elderly woman.
“I’m so amazed,” she said.
“I’ve got these nice letters, emails, Facebook messages,” Klein said. “It’s like, wow, there’s a whole world out there that I didn’t know. It’s really awesome.”
Sidorov has been in contact with Karen’s family and has been given the bank account info that Karen will use.
The spirit of giving has extended to Max himself as an online fundraiser has been set up to give thanks to Max. With a goal of $2,500, the fundraiser has already raised over $4,300.
This is not the first time that people on Reddit have come together altruistically for complete strangers.
“This is one of many things that have happened through Reddit,” Sidorov said. “People coming together to help someone else, it’s awesome, just awesome.”
Earlier in June, a 23-year old Vancouverite with cancer started a discussion on Reddit asking community members to ask him anything. Touched by his candidness and heartbreaking story, the community rallied and raised over $30,000 for the man in just 24 hours.
With files from The Associated Press
WARNING: This video may be offensive to some viewers.
Comments