I remember being a child and if someone told me something was a good or nice thing to do, I would do it. It was simple. There were no over-complicating the matter. There was no, "I don't want to" or second-guessing or laziness getting in the way, I would just get it done.
I'm not trying to say that adults suck and kids are so much better either, I mean, when I was a kid I didn't have to worry about anything other than going to school and keeping my clothes clean, but I am saying that this simplistic view on doing the right thing was somehow lost in my journey to adulthood.
And seeing this heartbreaking story about Tijn.
Tijn's a Dutch boy with an incurable brain tumor. His father says that doctors haven't given him much time to live: he most likely make it to next Christmas.
Tijn wants to help future boys who might be in the same position as him get the funding they need to overcome their illnesses. So he mosied on over to an annual Fundraising effort a Dutch Radio station holds every year. Each time they try to raise funds to obliterate a separate "silent catastrophe".
They pick a city, create a glass house, where DJ's sit inside to raise money. They don't eat or leave the box for an entire week either.
This year's "silent catastrophe" the DJ's were raising money for pneumonia; every 35 seconds a child dies from it.
They managed to earn over $1.35 million dollars in just 48 hours, which paled in comparison to last years effort: over $2.6 million.
Tijn then approached the glass box with his father, who explained his son's situation to the radio show hosts.
He lets the hosts know his intentions to help other kids: "Most of the poor kids infected with pneumonia don’t even live to be five years old. That is why we’re standing up to fight."
So they came up with an awesome idea: Tijn would paint people's nails in exchange for about a $1 donation.
The hosts told people to encourage their friends to do the same and after cutting a special hole in the glass house for Tijn to cut people's nails through, people started lining up.
Tijn's involvement resulted in a huge spike in donations.
He also got the attention of national celebrities, which brought even greater exposure and money to the campaign.
Tijn alone helped raise over $1 million for the cause.
An online fund was dedicated to Tijn's work which has amassed a huge amount of funds to ending children's pneumonia already.
You can check it out here. (h/t GurdenRabsyKittenKnightbears on imgur)
from Distractify http://distractify.com/trending/2016/12/23/painting-nails-saving-lives
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