Alcona YouTuber Raises Money for ACCOA Food Bank
A YouTuber in Alcona started a GoFundMe with a goal to help people have food for the winter. She originally asked for $2400, but exceeded $15,000 in just five days.
Leisa Sutton is a YouTuber based in Alcona. Her channel, Sutton’s Daze, teaches people about pantry preparedness. Her channel has over 78.5K subscribers, and her demographic is highly in the range of senior citizens.
After her husband had an experience with an elderly person who was tight on money and couldn’t afford food, she decided she didn’t want to see that happen to anyone else. So she contacted Karen Hughes at the Alcona County Commission on Aging, and they set up a GoFundMe to help raise money for a food bank.
“I took it to my community, my viewers online, and said, ‘this is what I’m trying to do, I want to try to raise $2400, to buy two food trucks to help out,” Sutton said.
Hughes was ecstatic to be able to help, and the two started working together right away.
“She said, ‘I want to fundraise for you,’ and my brain said, ‘Cool!'” she said.
The original goal of $2400 was shattered almost immediately after another YouTuber in Alaska got wind of what was happening and asked his viewers to help as well. In just five days, the GoFundMe raised $15,000 dollars.
“The preparedness community as a whole I think are some of the most giving people around, because by them doing their work and making sure that they’re covered, it gives them the opportunity to help make sure other people are covered too,” Sutton said.
Both Sutton and Hughes said they were overwhelmed and humbled by the generosity they received through the lucrative donations.
“Your generosity to absolutely complete strangers is amazing,” said Hughes.
“I have to mimic that,” said Sutton. “As Americans, we have to take care of each other; we can’t count on anybody else to do it for us, we have to reach out and take care of each other and we have to make sure that we’re taking care of that demographic that needs us the most.”
The GoFundMe is now closed, and the next step is filling trucks of food to be donated monthly for the next year.
