Social Experiment: The "I" In We
We often hear that “there’s no I in we”. Agreed. If we’re talking literal spelling that’s true.
That being said, this Social Experiment was designed to highlight exactly the opposite. It’s been designed to prove just how much “I” is in “we”. Just how much one person, one dollar, one moment, one letter “I”, can make a difference.
Let me explain.
It all started with a sign for a lemonade stand that read, "Lemonade for sale. Help raise money for my daddy's kidney transplant." As I sped past the sign onto the highway and continued to go about my day, the sign kept coming back to me. It bothered me. After 15 minutes of driving, I was compelled to get off of the freeway, turn around, and go back and find that sign.
As I pulled up to the stand, a boy about the age of 8 said "I like your ducks." (Pointing to my jeep dashboard). I told him about the game #duckduckjeep and how people leave a duck on your dashboard as a way to connect and say hello to each other. I then asked him to tell me what he had going on here (referring to the jugs of lemonade). He said "my dad needs a kidney transplant", at which point Jorge introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Jorge, I need a kidney transplant."
I shared with him how a friend of a friend of a friend just recently had one, and was doing much better. He then said, "my problem is that I have to pay out of pocket". Initially about $400k is needed, with a cost totaling close to $800k by the end. Oof, that hit hard. As someone currently without insurance, I cannot imagine facing something of that magnitude. I asked his son which lemonade he recommended and he said "classic, definitely classic". He suggested this over the strawberry lemonade, as well as the horchata.
As I pulled away, I wanted to do more than donate via his lemonade stand. I wanted to run a social experiment. It's based on the belief that I have that there are easily 800k people in the world who would donate $1 + the GoFundMe fees to help Jorge obtain a kidney transplant. If any one of them were in Jorge's shoes, I'm sure the simple donation from others would be a no-brainer. The experiment is to show that a simple, single act of kindness can make a world of difference, a life-changing difference for a fellow human being. In a world where many feel disempowered, this is one way that we can cultivate the feeling of empowerment.
To run this experiment, there are a few simple rules:
You can only donate $1 (plus whatever fees GFM charges to do so).
You must believe that you're part of a bigger solution and that your donation matters. It's everything.
You must agree share with whatever network you have (whether in person or online).
Share where you're donating from, and who told you about the experiment. (I’d like to map what support looks like, and where it comes from geographically.)
For the purpose of this experiment, I’d ask that you donate $1 + fees to our specific campaign. Should you decide you’d like to donate more, I’m sure Jorge would greatly appreciate it. His various social platforms are linked below.