Constable: How 1-month Believe Project turned into $14,400 paid forward by 136
What started as a simple idea to spread a little joy for 30 days in December became something that lasted months and made believers out of dozens of suburban residents.
The Believe Project promised to distribute $100 daily to a reader who could use that money to do a good deed for someone else.
Instead of choosing 30 recipients to split a total of $3,000, the Believe Project doled out $14,400 to 136 winners in more than 60 suburbs.
One winning entry by Wendy Vieth of Libertyville was so compelling, it took on a life of its own.
"It was the most energizing, most awesome, best pay-it-forward thing," says Vieth, who ended up passing along more than 10 times the amount of her initial winning award to the Peter and Rita Quinn family of Schaumburg. "I received a call from a woman who was so moved by my friend's story that she donated $500 to my friends. I was stunned and again overwhelmed by the generosity of a total stranger."
Vieth's husband shared the story with his boss, and another $500 was on its way to the Quinn family.
"It was totally unexpected," says Peter Quinn, who was severely injured two years ago when he was running and got hit by a car. He lost the use of his legs and still suffers from persistent pain.
"He is a good, honest man who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time," Vieth says.
Quinn, who relies on a wheelchair, and his wife, a college friend of Vieth, are parents to Katherine, 14, and sons Henry, 12, and Andrew, 8, who is on the autism spectrum.
"It just shows people's generosity," Quinn says of the Believe Project gift and other acts of kindness that have come his way since his injury. "Even though it's pretty bad out there, this shows that the human nature is still out there, ready to help people."
Stories about people suggesting others to receive $100 appeared in our pages daily. Instead of just competing for the money, readers ended up contributing $9,900 to the project.
"Every one of these stories broke my heart in some way," says Daily Herald Managing Editor Jim Baumann, who immersed himself in the project along with Director of Strategic Marketing and Innovation M. Eileen Brown and Marketing Communications Specialist Kari Irwin.
"I shouldn't have been surprised that pretty soon after we started publishing these little stories, we started receiving checks of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars," Baumann said. "One from a very wealthy person. Others from just regular people who wanted to do what they could do. All of them anonymous."
For a group of seventh- and eighth-graders at Rotolo Middle School in Batavia, the Believe Project became a learning experience. Ann McDonald, a paraprofessional working with teachers Tony Baier and Katie Ciesla, challenged kids to put her $100 prize to good use.
"The kids did extreme research," says McDonald, who says students suggested spending the money on suicide prevention, food pantries, animal shelters, autism programs and disaster aid. "We put it in brackets, kind of like the NCAA basketball tournament. That was awesome to see this happen with these kids."
The students will present the check Friday at school to Emily Barrile of the St. Charles chapter of the American Red Cross.
Inspiring others to be on the lookout for ways to make the world better always has been a goal of Carolyn Gable, founder of the Expect a Miracle Foundation and the benefactor who asked for the Daily Herald's help in promoting her Believe Project. Founder of a successful transportation company, New Age Transportation, in Lake Zurich, Gable read every entry and chose the winners.
"I knew there was no way I could pick just one a day," says Gable, who doubled her initial investment in the project, which got an added boost from Daily Herald readers. "There were other people making contributions. That's what extended it (beyond the 30-day plan). It was very, very cool to see how it all blossomed."
The project rippled beyond expectations. Gable says the newspaper spread her idea farther than she ever could have on her own.
"I believe that one of a community newspaper's greatest strengths is to be a conduit between people who need help and those who want to help," Baumann says.
Project Believe proved to be a double blessing for Cathy Jackson and her boyfriend, John Siepl of Buffalo Grove. They each donated their winnings to people they see at the food pantry where they volunteer. One recipient was a married couple with jobs at a fast-food restaurant and five young children. The other was a woman who takes care of her elderly uncles.
"She was so very grateful," Jackson says. "She told me, 'Just you wait. When my business takes off, I'm going to do something nice.'"
That's exactly how Gable thought years ago when she was a waitress and single mother trying to find her calling and hoping to get a foothold in the business world.
"I think life is all about hope," says Gable, who spreads that message in her business career and career as a philanthropist. "If you don't have hope, you don't have anything."
Believe: Project inspires people from all stripes to give