WSU student Danni Messina was feeling thankful over the Thanksgiving weekend and wanted to support a good cause. Two days later, her goodwill gesture for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital had her on the hook for over $200,000 and by her own admission feeling a bit panicked.
Rather than throw in the towel, Messina showed the world how Cougar innovation works. She shared her story with the web-based fundraising platform gofundme.com and within a few days had raised more than $58,000 — and counting.
It all started with a Tweet from Messina offering to personally donate 25 cents to St. Jude’s for every “favorite” her post received and 50 cents for every retweet. She’d just talked with a friend who spent Thanksgiving at the hospital with his grandmother and it left Messina feeling determined to support a worthy cause, preparing to spend $500 to $1,000 of her own money while challenging her friends to get involved.
“Then I tweeted about it,” she explained later. “I tweeted because I had absolutely no idea there would be that much support around the idea.”
Meanwhile, the humorous tale of how a 19-year-old WSU student’s good intentions quickly mushroomed into a major commitment captured international attention as newspapers, network television and online news organizations tracked the viral posting.