Man gets 5,000 calls for YouTube postingApril 22, 2007
SOUTHBRIDGE, Mass. –Ryan Fitzgerald is unemployed, lives with his father and has a little bit of time on his hands.
So, he decided to offer his ear, to anyone who wants to call. After posting a video with his cell phone number on YouTube on Friday, the 20-year-old told The Boston Globe he has received more than 5,000 calls and text messages.
Fitzgerald said he wanted to “be there,” for anyone who needed to talk. “I never met you, but I do care,” a spiky-haired Fitzgerald said into the camera on his YouTube posting.
He planned to take and return as many calls he could, but on Monday at 5 a.m., his T-Mobile cell phone payment will begin charging him for his generosity when he is no longer eligible for free weekend minutes.
“I haven’t quite figured out what I’m going to do about it,” he said. “Come Monday, no way I’m going to just hang up on people and say, ‘I don’t have the minutes.’”
Fitzgerald, who said people consider him “easy to talk to,” was inspired by Juan Mann. YouTube video clips of Mann offering “Free Hugs” to strangers became wildly popular on the user-controlled Internet site.
“Some people’s own mothers won’t take the time to sit down and talk with them and have a conversation,” Fitzgerald said. “But some stranger on YouTube will. After six seconds, you’re not a stranger anymore, you’re a new kid I just met.”
Article from Boston.com national news.
Isn’t it amazing what just one person who cares about others can do?
What a motivator to show Christ’s love more.
July 19, 2007
Lonely,Lonely People
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1 comment:
That is so sad! That people feel they have n one they can really talk to that they ring a stranger who is prepared to simply listen. These days we live lives so full of things and activities that listening to someone often really is a sacrifice. I felt that at the end of 07 I really had no time to give and the sacrifice of listening was that I would not get sleep that night. Having time to listen has meant that in 08 I won't be studying to start off with and money will be tight but listeners is what the world needs and does mean the difference betwwen life and death at times. As the bible says - the tongue has the power to give life and I believe it does this at times by not moving. If you want some books on this at any time let me know I've been studying what it is to listen a bit through my pastoral care papers =).
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