Teen’s tweet leads to $190K hospital donation
MEMPHIS – It’s been quite a month for Danni Messina, and both she and the patients of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital are the richer for it.
“It’s been insane,” Messina said Wednesday inside the Danny Thomas/ALSAC Pavilion on the St. Jude campus.
Messina’s coaster ride odyssey began with a tweet in November on the other side of the country.
Messina, 19, a Seattle native attending Washington State University, tweeted Nov. 25 that she would pledge 25 cents to St. Jude for each favorite she got on her tweet and 50 cents for each retweet. She expected the tweet to stay within her circle of friends and allow her to meet her plan to donate $1,000 to the hospital.
Then things went sideways — or insane, to use Messina’s word.
The tweet took on a life of its own, spread around enough to require roughly $50,000 if Messina was to honor her commitment. A GoFundMe campaign stepped up to help, then St. Jude caught wind and hooked Messina up with corporate partner Kmart, which held a “Danni Messina Day” at its stores to raise funds.
By the time it was over, Messina’s little tweet resulted in a $190,000 donation to St. Jude, which Messina was on hand to present in person Wednesday. Along with the presentation, Messina got a tour of the hospital and spent some time with St. Jude patient Madison Conklin, with whom Messina struck up a friendship during the course of the fundraising effort.
“It’s just been so heartwarming,” said Messina, who had never been to Memphis or St. Jude. She was inspired to help the hospital after talking with a friend who had spent Thanksgiving with his grandmother there. “Being here, it’s just so real now.”
Conklin, 20, became part of the story through, naturally, Twitter. She saw Messina’s original tweet and began following her. When Conklin tweeted one of her friend’s stories and wrote how that friend was running out of treatment options, Messina saw it and reached out.
“She (Messina) saw it and asked if I was a patient,” said Conklin, who was diagnosed last November with Hodgkin Lymphoma. Conklin of Memphis was in school in east Tennessee at the time of her diagnosis but moved back home for treatment at St. Jude.
“We messaged back and forth, and Danni said she was coming to Memphis and would like to meet,” Conklin said.