A woman has literally raised more than $20,000 for victims of Hurricane Harvey, all thanks to photos of her cat.
Rachel Millman, who is a 29-year-old writer based in Broolyn, New York, asked people to donate to relief organizations on Monday.
She explained to potential donors on Twitter that if they sent her a receipt of their donation, she would in return provide them with photos of her cat Jerry misbehaving.
The writer thought her idea would generate $1,000 at the very most, but donations kept pouring in, and she and Jerry ended up raising an astonishing $20,533 by Thursday.
‘Please favorite this tweet if you would like to see a photo of Jerry behaving badly,’ she initially wrote, before realizing she could put pictures of Jerry to better use.
‘Actually I have a better idea,’ Rachel added. ‘@ me with proof of donating to a charity for south Texas and I will dm you a photo of Jerry behaving badly.’
In the end, fellow Twitter users were eager to see photos of the feline, a sizable animal who has a habit of stealing the food of Rachel’s other cat Meryl.
People promptly sent her screen shots of their donations to organizations such as the Houston Food Bank, rescue group Dallas DogRRR, and also the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund set up by the Greater Houston Community Foundation.
One person even wrote ‘Give Jerry pix’ on their receipt, making it clear that their donation was made with the mischievous cat in mind.
As even more donors contributed, Rachel was amazed to see the amount collected rise above $20,000, a mere 48 hours after her initial tweet.
‘I was shocked,’ she stated to Glamour of the overall success of her campaign.
Rachel, who now has 24,800 followers on Twitter, believes many people decided to participate due to the ‘social aspect’ of the movement, with social media users hearing about other donors and deciding to get involved too.
‘My dad was making fun of me earlier for this being the most millennial fundraising,’ she went on to say.
As for Jerry, he was apparently just a bit annoyed at his owner, who kept grabbing him to record videos as prizes for higher donors.
Rachel also mentioned that there was currently a ‘weird imbalance’ in her house because Jerry was being celebrated as a hero instead of Meryl, her better-behaved pet.
Literally thousands of people had to seek refuge in shelters after Harvey dumped historic quantities of rain on southeast Texas, reaching 51.88inches in Cedar Bayou.
At least 46 people are currently believed to have died as a consequence of the natural disaster, with officials warning that number is likely to rise.
Experts and officials have warned it may take years for the area to fully recover from the natural disaster.
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
