Abe Diaz

On December 4, 2013 life tragically changed for Caran Johnson commonly known as @scancouver by her followers. She had the unfortunate experience to live tweet her husband’s death on a car accident. I won’t go into detail as the media has already done that (and more) but what I made me pull the trigger on this post was what happened independently behind the scenes.

As many rushed to twitter to post horrible comments on the topic others started, shared and funded a campaign to fund the funeral arrangements of Caran’s husband in HOURS. No, it didn’t go viral, heck it was almost buried along the other tweets but still over 400 supporters participated. The goal was reached in hours and in fact it was over funded which was nice to see. This truly speaks to the power of community and the tribe leaders out there. 

Some Background info into the campaign: With sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo charging close to 5% in fees I was pleasantly surprised to hear of a $0 fee website for this type of campaigns. YouCaring was the place where the actual campaign (seen here) was hosted. I assume taxes still apply but the money should certainly help this family. Props to Marissa for spearheading this and my feelings go out to the Johnson family.