Tag Archives: Year of Giving

Day 20: Katy

CITIZENFOUR COVERHave you seen Citizenfour? It’s the Oscar nominated film documenting Edward Snowden’s leak of National Security Agency documents in the summer of 2013. I was shocked when I went to see the film and saw that the co-producer was a woman I met during my Year of Giving.

Katy was one of my favorite $10 recipients back in 2010. I met her on Day 111 and will never forget what she did with her $10. You can read about that here.

Katy back in April of 2010

Katy back in April of 2010

Anyway, go see the film regardless of what you think you know about the events surrounding Snowden and the release of the NSA classified documents. It definitey changed my feelings about him and his decision to go public with the information.

 

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Dear Katy,

Congratulations on producing Citizenfour – such a beautiful and thought provoking film. It’s honest and opens a very interesting doorway into not only the leaking of NSA classified documents by Edward Snowden but also into the areas of privacy, security, technology, secrecy, transparency – what it means when we call ourselves a democracy. Your film changed my opinion of Mr. Snowden and the series of events that led up to and unfolded during the summer of 2013 – that’s awe-inspiring and powerful! I hope you are well and look forward to one day catching up with you.

All the best,
Reed

Day 13: Ken


I met today’s recipient five years ago today. A proud and stalwart salesman of the Street Sense newspaper in DC, I’ve stayed in touch with him ever since meeting him through my Year of Giving project. You can read about the day we met and see a photo of Ken in action selling the paper here.

Ken Day 13

 

Ken,

Today marks five years since we met at the Dupont Circle metro stop at the corner of 20th and Q. Your passion and enthusiasm for Street Sense, your customers and soccer all inspire me to be passionate about things in my own life. I know you’ve experienced great challenges in your life, but you face them with strength and optimism and I admire that. I know your birthday is this Saturday – let’s go for lunch one day this week or next week to celebrate.

Your friend,

Reed