One boy and a bike spontaneously harness the power of social media for Haiti
Written 25.01.10 by: Sally Smith
One little boy called Charlie decides something has to be done to help the children in Haiti. He chooses to ride about his local park in Fulham, with the hope of raising around £500. Mum decides to set up a JustGiving page, as an easy way for friends and family to donate. Little did they know the phenomenon they were about to unleash.
Someone tweets about the page, another person re-tweets it – soon even Gordon Brown is tweeting about Charlie. Someone else decides to share the link with friends on Facebook, in turn they share with their friends and now we’re snowballing.
Soon Charlie is on the BBC News, CNN and Sky News. People are giving from all over the world: France, America, Holland, Belgium, Australia. Online feeds offline and in turn offline feeds back into online, to create over £115,000 for Unicef’s Aid Effort in Haiti (as of 4.54pm on Monday 25 January). I am writing this article because I feel inspired and many others will too - keeping the momentum going.
When I went online at 10am this morning, Charlie Simpson had raised £85,000, now at 5pm it’s going through the roof. I sit here clicking refresh on the page and with every refresh there’s another £500 for Unicef’s efforts in Haiti. It seems that Charlie has caught the public imagination on a global scale.
So what will the final total be? Who knows! With a worldwide audience, connected as friends through social media and the internet the sky really is the limit.
Checkout Charlie’s JustGiving page here and see him doing his cycle on the BBC website doing his cycle on the BBC website