Strangers on a plane become generous donors

Chicago schoolteacher Kimberly Bermudez has always been the chatty type.

So when she was on a Southwest Airlines flight to Florida to visit her parents last week, and her seatmate asked her what she did for a living, she told him about her firstgraders, some of whom are homeless, and all of whom come from lowincome families.

He asked her: “What’s the most challenging part of your job?”

When children come to school hungry, she said, and seeing hard-working immigrant parents struggling to provide basic necessities for their families.

“You can’t control what happens at home,” Bermudez, 27, told the Washington Post.

The seatmate replied that his company donates to schools such as hers, and she enthusiastically said her charter school, Carlos Fuentes Elementary, would welcome it.

A moment later, she felt a tap on her shoulder. He apologized for eavesdropping. Then he handed her a stack of cash. “Do something amazing,” he told her.

As the plane landed in Jacksonville, a man in the aisle across from her handed her a $20. Then a third contributor said all he had was $10, and he gave it to her.

Her mother picked her up at the curb, and when she got in her mom’s car, she counted the money: Five $100 bills, one $20 bill and one $10 bill.

“I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh,’” she said. “I’m very much still processing it.”

As for the man who gave her the stack of hundred-dollar bills, he remains a mystery.

“I have no idea who he is,” Bermudez said. “He was just an amazing stranger.”