Some of you may recall that last summer we debuted a video and mission titled “The Money Tree.”  It was an experiment based on inverting the old adage: what IF money DID grow on a tree? So we filled up a neighborhood tree with dollar bills, and let the camera roll. That video is shared again at the end of this post.

The video ended up going viral…and so many astute observations and hypotheticals came of it:

- What if we had filled the tree with $10 bills instead of singles?

- What if the tree was in a low income neighborhood?

- What if there was a sign encouraging people to help themselves to the money?

There are literally hundreds of comments along these lines on YouTube; I think the comment thread alone makes for an interesting anthropological discussion in the classroom or at the dinner table.

And just recently, one young man by the name of Alex Vasquez-Inovskis decided to conduct his own version of the experiment.  Alex is a student of an amazing teacher named Erika Deiters at Moraine Valley College; she gave her students the assignment of creating something new inspired by one of our missions.  

I think he created something pretty special:   

So this week’s mission:

Let’s use Alex’s video as a springboard— what does it inspire YOU to give away?  

I invite you to actually conduct/film the experience, or to simply share your ideas in the comment section.

And then I just might take one of your suggestions and bring it to life for a future Mission Amy KR mission.  I love the idea of this being a sort of inspiration version of Russian Dolls…one idea inside/leading to another.

Thank you again to Alex, and to Ms. Erika Deiters…

yours,

amy   p.s. 11 days until The Beckoning of Lovely 11/11/11 !

And I doubt you missed this (because it has 70 millions views) but just in case, here is the classic and beautiful “Free Hugs” video created by Juan Mann in 2006.