Sunil a round of applause because it’s
pretty incredible alright as he said my
name is Ryan Alcorn and I go to hernán
high school Hernan has a lot of stories
and I’m gonna tell you a story that you
might not know about so for the sake of
the story I’m well it’s about this guy
we’re gonna call him primo and it’s
about how the community came together to
support him at a time of need I’m at
primo last year in a personal fitness
class he was a pretty short guy
pretty quiet I didn’t know a lot about
him but he seemed nice he’s Hispanic
just just seemed like a regular guy and
we got to know each other because we
were in the same weight group he was a
pretty strong a pretty strong guy so I
had to work to keep up with him but we
started to get to know each other
through Spanglish I spoke a little bit
of Spanish he spoke a little bit of
English but we we became close friends
and he actually turned out he had the
same lunch as I did and so his friends
became my friends and vice versa so it’s
pretty nice and he we started to hang
out outside of school he he would come
over to my house and I remember one day
he came over and I didn’t have my
license yet
so my mom drove him home and she’s
fluent in Spanish so she and him could
connect a little better than I could and
I remember she drove back she was home
and she had tears in her eyes and I said
mom what’s going on what happened and
Premo had opened up to her about his
story in his past and it turns out the
primo grew up in a very poor part of el
salvador and when he was 5 years old his
parents actually left for the United
States to to make more money they could
send back so he was living in El
Salvador with his grandmother and his
younger sister and if you know anything
about El Salvador the there’s a lot of
gang violence and it’s an incident
poverty and as he got older he was
turning into a teenager things got worse
and gang violence increase and he told
me a story about there was a there’s a
festival and there’s an old man in the
community and it turned out
at the end of the festival the old man
had been killed by a gang member and
things were getting a lot worse and at
one point he was actually invited to
join a gang and he didn’t join he for
moral reasons and he also knew that if
he joined then he would become a target
for other games so his parents his
grandmother and him decided it’s time to
come to America and they came long story
short it’s quite a story but they got to
the United States he and his sister and
they met up they were United and they
ended up in Herndon now once he was in
the United States things things were
better but they weren’t perfect and I
remember in personal fitness class
sometimes he wasn’t always giving it
100% sometimes he was he seemed tired
and sometimes he wouldn’t show up at all
and originally I thought that he was
just lazy as you know this guy doesn’t
seem to work too hard whatever okay
sometimes I would kind of get on him for
it but then I found out prima was
working three jobs and I know a lot of
us here actually do have jobs but he was
doing manual labor he was doing
landscaping roofing and he was working
his butt off and I said prima why are
you doing this and he told me you know I
have to support my family my dad and I
we have to feed we could feed my mother
and my sisters and I was that that
really shook me I was like wow okay this
guy this guy actually he’s doing
something for his family that’s
impressive and he also told me that his
grandmother back in El Salvador was sick
and he was most of his money that he
made was actually going to her so the
money that he had was going to food his
family and his grandmother so I was
pretty impressed by that and so we’re
gonna let’s flash forward about six
months so he and I become good friends
my friends are his friends a lot of
people here tonight actually know him
pretty well and let’s see so it was
December it’s December of this last year
so this winter and I hadn’t seen him in
a few weeks and I just I was a little
bit worried because I usually see him
every day at lunch and I say I texted
him I said prema what’s going on man
are you okay he’s like oh you know I’ve
been a little sick
I’ve come down with pneumonia when I was
working and because he works outside and
I said oh man sorry’s there anything we
can do
brought him a few Gatorades he seemed
okay he was getting better but I didn’t
see him for another week and then we had
plans he was going to come to my house
for dinner one night and I pull up to
his house and he walks outside but he’s
got his head down he’s looking really
sad he’s looking sick and I say prema
are you okay
are you sick he’s like no I just got
some terrible news and he hands me this
people so he hands me this piece of
paper and it’s a bill he’d gone to the
hospital and this going to the hospital
for someone without insurance
prema didn’t have insurance is a
nightmare because he had been sick for
two weeks he came out with pneumonia and
he wasn’t getting any kind of treatment
and he even tried to come to school and
when he was at school he started
throwing up blood so he went to the
nurse the nurse said you know what
calling the I’m calling an ambulance you
got to go to the ER you got to get
antibiotics and kind of almost against
his will he went and he was there for
four hours and when I see the bill I had
no idea what was going on I see the bill
is four thousand dollars and four
thousand dollars for four hours at the
hospital
so he comes over he says you know I
might have to drop out of school because
I can’t afford to pay this and I tell
him you know I say I think it’s going to
be okay we’re going to figure something
out at the time he didn’t believe it and
honestly I didn’t believe it either
but okay he came over and we’re like
we’re gonna figure something out
shopping to my mom I Drive him home we
still haven’t figured any we have no
idea we’re gonna do we don’t have that
kind of money obviously he doesn’t have
that kind of money and I get home and I
say hey mom what about this idea I’ve
heard of GoFundMe GoFundMe is this
website it’s also an app where you can
donate to different campaigns and I was
like she told me she said that’s a great
idea but you have to make sure you get
Primo’s approval and so I said you know
I him right away say Premo how about
this what if we got
people together we set up this campaign
and people could donate and as I was
expecting him to be super excited yes
yes yes of course and he says no who’s
going to donate to me a guy like me no
one knows me who cares and I said primo
that’s just that’s just not true
and I listed a whole bunch of names
people in this room right now of people
who I knew cared about this guy and
we’re going to help out and he’s like
all right let’s do it let’s try it out
and so I put it together at 7:00 p.m.
that night and by 7:00 a.m. the next
morning thirty people had donated and we
had $2,000 in 12 hours overnight that
was pretty incredible
and I saw him at lunch I said hey did
you see this do you see it and he was
just beaming I’d never seen him so happy
he’s like wow I can’t believe this and
most of the people who donated in those
first twelve hours were students at this
high school and I’m really proud to be a
part of those the students I’m really
happy to know those people so thank you
to those people who donated and then
another 24 hours after that not only and
we hit our four thousand dollar goal we
could have made an additional $1,000 so
we ended up with $5,000 in 36 hours and
that was incredible I remember I
remember seeing him and just how happy
was but the coolest thing was a lot of
the people who donated they never met
primo they were just people in this
Herndon and rest and community who saw a
guy in need they read the story they
said hey this kids in trouble he needs
help he sounds like a good guy
we’re gonna help him out and they did
and people donated from $5 to $500 and
this blew me away just the outpouring of
love and support and not only did it
show Premo what an amazing community we
have but it showed me and if I can leave
you with one thing it’s that if you can
create an opportunity for people to do
good people are always looking to do
good and it just shows what an amazing
community we have here in Herndon so
thank you to everyone and thank you
heard in high school you