It’s nice to start out the week with some uplifting news, so here we are sharing the story of 25-year-old Greg Smith. The sales account executive wrote a post on his Facebook page about a homeless woman named Amy Joe.
Every day he would pass her on his way to work and she never would ask him for money. She only offered him polite greetings, a warm smile and a surprisingly positive attitude. Eventually, he started having lunch with her every Tuesday afternoon.
“For 30 min to an hour I get to hear how positive she is even though she really has nothing,” Smith wrote on his page. During one of their lunch conversations, Amy Joe revealed she never learned how to read. It’s one of the main things holding her back in life.
“She began to tell me any money that she can collect she uses to check out library books that help with learning to read instead of buying FOOD.”
After hearing this, Smith knew he had to help out. In addition to their weekly lunch meetings, Smith now sits down and teaches her how to read. He rents one library book a week and they read it together every Tuesday. The rest of the week she practices on her own.
Some of you might be thinking, “This is great, but why did he need to brag about it on Facebook?” Well, he didn’t post the story to brag. He shared the story to inspire, which is the same reason we’re sharing the story.
And thanks to all the support Smith has received, he has created a GoFundMe page to raise money for a new foundation he plans to create to help the homeless in his community. He’s named it the Amy Joe Foundation, and he has already raised over $2,000.
“I want to be able to help anybody, whether it be giving them some food or clothes. I don’t want to just narrow it down to helping people read because there’s so many other people that need more help.”
We need more people like Smith AND Amy Joe in the world. We wish them both the best.
Images via: Facebook
