It started with a random stop and a question.
"Who's influenced you the most in your life?"
Former Kennesaw resident Brandon Stanton, creator of the website and bestselling book "Humans of New York" (HONY), makes his living by stopping people on the street, asking them a question and taking their portrait. His followers on Twitter and Facebook alone number in the multimillions.
But last week, when Stanton stopped 13-year-old Vidal Chastanet and asked who has influenced him, he got an unexpected answer.
“My principal, Ms. Lopez.”
"How has she influenced you?"
"When we get in trouble, she doesn't suspend us. She calls us to her office and explains to us how society was built down around us. And she tells us that each time somebody fails out of school, a new jail cell gets built. And one time she made every student stand up, one at a time, and she told each one of us that we matter."
When Stanton posted his interaction with and portrait of Vidal, the response was so overwhelming that the UGA grad decided to visit principal Nadia Lopez at Mott Hall Bridges Academy in Brownsville, a neighborhood in Brooklyn with one of New York's highest murder rates per capita.
Stanton told CNN that he asks people about their most influential person all the time, but this was the first time anyone said "my principal."
"Then when I met Ms. Lopez, I could not have been more impressed," he told CNN. "She is a force of nature. When she let me sit in on a staff meeting, I got a front-row seat to the challenges that her school faces, and I wanted to be involved in the solution."
After brainstorming with Lopez and director of programs Monique Achu, Stanton updated the story on his social media sites.
"So the three of us struck on an idea" he wrote. "(OK, it was Ms. Achu’s idea, but we all agreed.) We want to create a fund that will provide each incoming 6th grade class at Mott Hall Bridges Academy a chance to get out of their neighborhood and visit a new place. And that place is Harvard University. 'I want every child who enters my school to know that they can go anywhere, and that they will belong,' said Ms. Lopez."
Included in Stanton's update was a link to an Indiegogo fundraising page, where he hoped his followers would donate $100,000.
"Based on some back-of-the-envelope calculations, we estimate the cost of a trip, including transportation and lodging, will be about $30,000," Stanton explains on the page. "I chose $100,000 because that will safely fund a trip for three different classes over three years.
"But each additional $30,000 raised will provide another class of students with their own trip. So let's really hit it out of the park for these kids."
Hit it out of the park, they did. It took all of 45 minutes on Jan. 22 to raise $100,000. As of Tuesday morning, the "Let's Send Kids to Harvard" fundraising page showed $810,770 in donations.
There are already plans for the extra money.
“We have a major need for a summer program,” Lopez says on the fundraising page. “Learning stops during the summer for my scholars. We have what is called a ‘summer slide.’ My scholars can’t even go outside. It’s too dangerous. ... They need a safe place where they can do activities and continue to grow their minds. I tried to put together a program last summer, but I couldn’t afford it. ... I need the funds to put together a program with my own teachers so my students have a safe place where they can continue to grow outside of school.”
She estimates that an effective summer program would cost about $40,000 a year,so every $40,000 beyond $350,000 will fund a “safe and productive summer " for the students at Mott Hall.
But that's not all.
Stanton updated the Indiegogo page Monday night: "I am happy to announce that all funds raised over $700,000 will be reserved for a final purpose. We are starting a scholarship fund available to the graduates of Mott Hall Bridges Academy. ... We’re going to use the money from our fundraiser to get it started, but we’re also going to lay tracks so that it can hopefully continue to assist scholars for years to come. It will be called The Vidal Scholarship Fund. And the first recipient will be Vidal."
What began as a random question asked to a 13-year-old has grown into hope for a future for an entire school.
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