Here is your feel good story of the day. Chicago charter school teacher Kimber Bermudez was on a Southwest Airlines flight to Florida earlier this month when her seatmate asked her what she does for a living. The 27-year-old began to gush about her first graders and how much she loves her job.
“When he asked me the greatest challenge that I face, I was honest with him,” Bermudez wrote in a Facebook post that has since gone viral. “I told him that working at a low income school can be heartbreaking.” Some of the children at Carlos Fuentes Elementary School are homeless.
Suddenly, Bermudez felt a tap on her shoulder. It was the man in the row behind her. “He apologized for listening in to my conversation, and he handed me a wad of cash,” Bermudez revealed. “He told me to ‘do something amazing’ and sat back down.”
Bermudez glanced down and saw a $100 dollar bill. (She would later find out he had given her $500.) Overwhelmed with emotion, Bermudez began to cry. “I thanked him and told him how I would buy my students books and give back to the community,” she shared in the post.
The kindness didn’t stop there. “The plane landed and the man on the aisle across from me told me that he listened as well. He said that he didn’t have much, but he gave me $20,” wrote Burmudez. Another gentleman contributed $10.
“I was not telling my story to solicit money, and I never intended to walk out of that flight with anything other than my carry on,” noted Bermudez. “I do however hope that posting this continues the chain of people helping those in need, and especially the children in need.
The post has been shared more than 1,000 times and was featured on Today.
Bermudez tells Us Weekly she was “beyond amazed by the generosity” of strangers. “I plan on using the money on books for my students,” she told Us. “If the school raises enough our goal is to build a playground.”
