It's not uncommon that you'll find yourself on a long flight and end up chatting with the person next to you. Usually the discussion centers around where you're both headed, where you grew up, and where you work. Whether you like talking with strangers or not, you never know where the conversation will take you.
In this case, when teacher Kimber Bermudez started chatting up with a stranger on her flight, the conversation started just like any other, but the way it ended would be a huge surprise for her. This is all due to the fact that she shared that she works as a teacher.
Teachers, especially ones who teach at underprivileged schools like Kimber Bermudez, have incredibly difficult jobs. With the lack of school resources, they often have to pay for school supplies out of their own pockets. Thanks to these good samaritans on the plane with her, Bermudez has a little bit of financial help to make her students' lives better.
Kimber Bermudez is a 27-year-old elementary school teacher at Carlos Fuentes Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois. It's a low-income school, which can make teaching there incredibly difficult. As many areas in Chicago struggle with poverty and violence, education can take a back seat to survival, even if that will harm these students in the long run. In those situations, even when the students are engaged, the schools lack the resources to help feed their intellectual curiosity.
As Kimber Bermudez sat on her flight to Florida to visit her parents, her luck all began when she started to speak with a nice man sitting next to her. What she expected to be a normal and pleasant airplane conversation ended up turning into what could only be described as a charitable movement by not only the man but many other plane-goers as well.
While Bermudez talked with the man sitting next to her, the question came up regarding what Bermudez did for a living. When she told him that she was a teacher, the man furthered his line of questioning, growing all the more curious. He asked her what the hardest part of her job was, which Bermudez had a very clear answer.
On Facebook, Bermudez noted: ""When he asked about the greatest challenge that I face, I was honest with him... I told him that working at a low-income school can be heartbreaking." Bermudez went on to explain that her and her colleagues often have to pay out of their own pocket to buy school supplies, and sometimes that even includes spending their own money on children's clothing and basic hygienic needs. What she didn't expect was that this man would be the perfect person to talk to about this.
After Bermudez had passionately explained her situation, as well as her struggles with teaching low-income students, the man explained to her that the company he works for will often donate school supplies to schools and students in need. Just like that, he asked for her contact information. That would be great news for any teacher, but that's only where it began.
Soon after, the man sitting behind Kimber handed her cash, inspired by her story. That caused a chain reaction where the man in front of her also gave her money. Once she got off the plane she counted the money, which was in excess of $500, mostly due to the man sitting behind her. While her aim was never to ask anyone for money, the people around her couldn't help but see that she was the right person for it.
