the idea: raise enough money to send a NYC kid on a Wild West Adventure

the ideator: Brandon Stanton from Humans of New York

I’ve been following Brandon’s work on HONY for a while now and am, like millions of other people, always amazed by what he does.  Not only is he a good photographer, but he captures a piece of the people he photographs.  Something deeper than just their image.  Recently, he’s started going past that.  Now that his art has a grown a huge following, Brandon has started throwing his weight behind certain projects.

Some are silly, like the Christopher Walken T-Rex sculpture.  Some are serious, like when he partnered with Tumblr (yes, the whole site) and raised $318,530 for victims of Hurricane Sandy.  That was the first fundraiser I’ve ever been a part of and the print of the photo that I got as an incentive is hanging in my room.

But today, Brandon went a step further.  Rather than donating hoards of money for nameless people, he decided to focus on the dream of one little New Yorker who wanted to own a horse.  The kid, Rumi, was selling cowboy merchandise on the sidewalk with his mother and had only managed to make $1 in sales when Brandon stopped by to take his photo.  After that, it escalated.

Brandon went home, did some research on horses (something all photographers end up doing, I guess), talked with Rumi’s parents, and created an indigogo campaign to raise enough money to send Rumi on a Wild West Adventure.  Here was his plan:

“Let’s send Rumi on a horse-filled, whip-cracking, high-falootin’, Wild West adventure.  For $7,000, we can send Rumi and his parents on an all-expenses-paid trip to Drowsy Water Ranch, 90 miles outside of Denver.  (This includes airfare, transportation, lodging, all meals, and a variety of activities).  Drowsy Water is consistently ranked as one of the nation’s top ranches for families.”

In fifteen minutes, he raised all $7,000.  As I write this, he’s raised over $23,000.  All the extra money will be donated to Equestria, a New York based organization dedicated to providing riding lessons to children with disabilities.

After spending the time to build a respected, honest, arts-platform, all Brandon needed was an idea, a good photo, and some phone calls to make a kid’s dream come true.  That, my friends, is the power of community art.