Feel Good Story Of The Day: Sunny Sweeney Pays It Forward

If you have followed Sunny Sweeney ("From a Table Away," "Staying's Worse Than Leaving," "Bottle By My Bed") on social media over the last week or two, you would have witnessed a remarkable story of an artist putting the spotlight on an everyday Joe and a group of fans that came together and raised a significant amount of money for someone they've never met before. If you missed this storyline, let me piece it together below for you. And maybe you'll be just as moved to do something or pay it forward in a similar way down the road. 

From Sunny, "We are traveling thru Florida playing some shows. Had a day off in Jacksonville, FL and being lazy, we decided to order pizza. I went to the lobby to meet the delivery guy. That's where I met this man, Alvin. I watched him walk super slowly into the lobby to bring us our pizza. There was something about this man's kindness that made me want to cry my eyes out. As I stood there talking to him, (and I didn't ask his age, but I assure you, he was too damn old to be physically impaired and having to deliver pizza to make ends meet." I said, "well, Alvin, tell me a little about yourself." He said, "I'm just out here trying to pay my bills."

"I meet people all over the world and some of them just touch my heart more than others. He asked if he could shake my hand, and I asked if I could have his phone number. So this is why I'm here today, I know there's lots of people struggling to make ends meet, but if I can attempt to make one guys life easier, then I feel like I am doing the job I was put here for."

So, in closing, I am gonna contact Alvin this week sometime and say I have a little present for him, assuming I can make a few extra bucks for him thru this go fund me. If we could pay his rent for a month, I bet he would be forever grateful. If you have anything to spare, even a dollar, anything helps.

And so Sunny set up a GoFundMe account HERE. And boy, did her music fans every come through. More than $11,000 raised in just 24 hours to help ease the financial strain for a man she had never met. 

Sunny followed up after a couple days of fundraising, "Um... after go fund me fees, we reached 11,026.01 cause of y'all's amazing donations and just loving on people we don't know. Thank YOU! Best feeling on the planet. We left Jax but thankfully my friend, Mike, let me Venmo him the rest when it went in my account and he just went and met up with Precious Alvin to deliver. I think we can all agree that the smile on his face says all I need to know and makes me grateful we all pitched in to make his day happier!  Love you, Alvin!  We can't wait to come back to town. ⚡️⚡️"

The next day, Sunny and Sunny's crew invited Alvin back in to give him the good news: