A chance encounter between a traveling TV host and a homeless man inspired hundreds of people to donate $35,000.
While traveling to Denver on business, British writer and television host Leon Logothelis bumped into James Moss, an unemployed barber who is raising his 2-year-old son in a homeless shelter.
Logothelis struck up a conversation with Moss — whom he saw as a human interest story waiting to be told.
Eventually Logothelis filmed his encounter with Moss and uploaded the video to YouTube.com on Nov. 3.
Before he departed, Logothelis gave Moss $1,000 and paid for a weeklong stay at a hotel for Moss and his son, Zhi.
Moss told Logothelis he and his son had just moved to Denver from the unforgiving streets of New York.
Logothelis said he was inspired by Moss’ positive, uplifting story. A woman in Goodland, Kansas saw the video and created a GoFundMe account that has so far raised over $35,000 for Moss and Zhi.
“I guarantee in a month’s time, I’ll make anything that I need to happen, happen,” Moss told Logothelis in the video. “You have to be brought down to your humblest point, so you can appreciate other things that are waiting for you.”
Moss was moved by the kind generosity of strangers.
“I love you all, you’re like family to me now,” he said. “I never thought that a small act of kindness like that would spark a huge chain reaction. I am so thankful, so grateful.”
In the movie Pursuit of Happyness, Will Smith plays a struggling salesman who winds up living in a homeless shelter with his son, played by his real life son Jaden Smith.
