Humans of New York (HONY) is a bestselling book and photoblog featuring street portraits and interviews of people collected in New York City.
Started in November 2010 by photographer Brandon Stanton, he has traveled across the Big Apple and collected over 6,000 portraits till date.Â
About two weeks ago, Stanton posted a photograph of a boy, Vidal Chastanet, who stated that his principal at Mott Bridges Hall Academy, Nadia Lopez is the person who influenced him the most.
“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”, Vidal told Stanton.
Stanton then went and tracked down Vidal’s school principal, told her what Vidal had said and asked her if there could be any manner in which he could help.
What followed has turned out to become one of the largest crowd-funded ventures till date.
Stanton, urging his friends and followers to contribute, kickstarted a campaign to collect money so that they can send sixth graders to Harvard for a week, so that they can see that they could dream big and belong to bigger things. Initially, they hoped to raise $100,000, enough to finance three years of field trips. But now, with whooping $1.113 million already been raised, they still have 10 more days left for fundraising. With this amount, now they have 10 years of Harvard field trips, plus 10 years of summer programs. Also, they now have over $300,000 for scholarships, named after Vidal.
With phenomenal following on social media, Humans of New York has close to 12 million followers on Facebook and over 2.1 million followers on Instagram . Â
Stanton thanked people who have contributed from all over the globe and wrote, “Thanks to the 34,893 of you who have donated so far. (That’s getting close to an Indiegogo record, by the way!) Thanks also to those of you who have been following along, and lending comments of support. I’m so proud of how everyone has rallied around this story, in ways that go so far beyond just raising money.”
A leading daily mail reports “It was a heady experience for a school that has little money for extras; its parent association raises only a few hundred dollars a year, compared with the hundreds of thousands of dollars raised for schools in wealthier neighborhoods. When students heard about the Harvard trip, they cheered. ‘It will inspire me a lot,’ said Isaiah Carrington, 14. ‘Every day, Ms. Lopez tells me, ‘You’re a good scholar,’ and I can be something in life if I have my mind set on it.'”