Like something directly out of “Cool Runnings,” the Jamaican bobsled team has once again managed to qualify for the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games. Still, they have found themselves about $80,000 short of meeting the airfare, shipping, equipment and living expenses that go along with the athletes’ sport of choice.
To get to the games, which start in a mere two weeks, the Jamaican Bobsled duo of Winston Watts and Marvin Dixon needed something just short of a miracle.
Luckily for them, one of the few differences between the world of the 1993 cult classic – based on the inspirational 1988 Jamaican team – and that of today is the possibility of globalization for every story, no matter how small, thanks to the Internet.
What the 1988 team was missing was a true international expressway for the quick dissemination of their story. What the 2014 team has is a way to raise funds.
With this in mind, the Watts and Dixon began an Indiegogo account to accept any and all donations.
The response? Wow.
Maybe this is a story that has been hyped up because of its due value, but I’d like to think that the unwavering support and compassion that several Internet communities and anonymous benefactors have shown is a shining example of just exactly what is right in the world.
It all started with the Dogecoin, the result of the unorthodox concoction created by mixing the beloved Shiba Inu Internet meme and the growing Bitcoin and Litecoin crypto-currency communities. After hearing the Jamaican team’s story, the head of the Dogecoin Foundation, Liam Butler, along with the original Dogecoin founders, Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus, created a charity fund for the team.
After a few emails, the fund was up and running on Sunday, and after a few posts on the Dogecoin thread of Reddit and several other Internet forums, doge-nations began flooding in.
In a matter of two days, millions of Dogecoins were raised by random Internet users wanting to make a difference and wanting to make a dream come true.
The fund raised the equivalent of 35 bitcoins, or more than $30,000. Overall, the bobsled team has raised nearly $200,000, according to the Washington Post. It would seem that Watt and Dixon will be heading to Sochi after all.
Of course, all of this comes on a day where the sentiment of altruistic giving could be no more appropriate, as the memory of the Martin Luther King Jr. remains alive and well within not only the hearts of our nation, but also those of much of the world.
Here at The University of Alabama, to celebrate the memory and revere the words of King, students and staff had the pleasure of listening to the inspirational words and incredible music of renowned artist and activist, John Legend.
Legend, tying into the preaching’s of King, spoke highly of the possible impact of our generation particularly in the field of education.
Speaking of King, Legend said, “We know that you, our nation of young people, are next in line to carry on his work.”
He continued, “As students, you have so much potential to create change in the world.”
If Dogecoin has taught me anything this week, it’s that this is the absolute truth.
Our generation can create anything, change anything and do anything we want. The world that we are inheriting is chock full of issues from social to educational, to religious.
We are going to be facing the absolute worst debt in history, some of the largest health dilemmas ever seen, and some of the largest moral questions that could possibly be raised.
But in the face of adversity comes hope.
If we can end segregation in the south and the rule of Jim Crow in 1963, if we can fully desegregate this campus’ sorority system fifty years later and if we can send the Jamaican bobsled team to Sochi in 2014 with a crypto-currency based on an Internet meme, I have no doubt that we can make an unforeseen impact on this earth.
It just takes a little bit from each of us.
One movement, one rally, one vote.
Even one Dogecoin.