note from editor: creationlayer. (I am a trusted member in the Bitcoin community and will transfer cash to Brook) I met Brook Demar at the gas station getting some coffee. I've seen him before and he asked if I could spare some change. I had one dollar left when I came out, and I figured I'd take a moment to say hi. Brook was obviously homeless and living with his wife out of his car. In California it's very expensive to live. In between his thoughts he mentioned he was a writer, and had a lot of stories. I had a realization that he was perfect for steemit, but doesn't have a computer or know technology well. I explained steemit, and he got it and I grabbed his cheap prepaid phone and snapped a picture. I said look I'll transcribe your stories for you over the phone. The money that is earned will go to Brook. I explained the idea of Steem power and the lock in period, he said, "that makes sense you have to give back", so we'll work out a solution for that. While his story is sad, he legitimately writes and is excited theres somewhere he can post so I'll be transcribing part of a novel he has written. So, without further ado here is my first transcribed call with Brook, an intro to him and his life.
Brook-
I'm Brook Demar, my dad was a police officer. I grew up in a real strict life. I had some sports here and there that almost got me in the naval academy in high school and I played soccer in college, I was good. I became homeless in 2012, because my apartment was near the train and it wrecked my hearing, and I was working for labor ready and was lifting too heavy for a couple days and tore my sternum apart which caused a couple of pain induced heart attacks. I've been living for the last 4 years in my car with Cindy, helping her out. We're broke and disabled, except the sign once and awhile generates some money for food or gas, or a cigarette.
My mother and father are deceased and my brother and sister are now too. We're trying to afford a home or a trailer or something to buy to live in. I'm a Christian and go to church when I can. I took care of my mom since I was 15 years old from 1972 to 1996. I turned down an appointment with the marines to go to the naval academy to take care of my mom. My dad called me a deputy sheriff when I was growing up.
I've done a lot of work, I worked at SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center), building tunnels there. I worked on a lot of inventions a light weight battery for car batteries, I worked on an electromagnet engine drive motor, I invented a ball cup curve cap flotation system for buildings that sit on the four corners of the foundation.
If I could do what I want, I would organize contributions to people to form a non-profit organization for outreach and help fill in the gaps. I've learned why homeless people won't get the help they want, or can't or won't go to a shelter. Different ways to help the needy then just give them money to inebriate themselves. I'd work to see what I could do to help take care of people for the winter, maybe get the house pods like they have in Portland and Seattle where they're giving away homes to the homeless. There's countless people that donate their time and money for nothing in return just so you don't have to suffer, you got something to eat.
Never forget where you came from, and pay back, and pay forward. Help out others in need, look in the paper for people crying out for help. I pray and I'm kind of in the dark right now, and I know I got stories but I don't know what else to do, I can't lift over twenty pounds because of my job injury to my chest.
I love motocross, I used to ride motocross would love to work on bikes again too.
Thank you, I don't really understand it all but I want to learn and share my stories.
Update 1:
Calling Brook about the post early on: http://vocaroo.com/i/s11JM0NLlRrx
Update 2:
I am booking 3 nights for Brook and his wife in a hotel. He said a hot shower and soft bed will be a great help.
Update 3:
This has really taken off! wow. I spoke to Brook, first we are going to open a bank account for him (I know some hate banks). Then we will go to the thrift store and he can pick out some clothes. We will then go to the apple store and pick out a tablet. I can not promise he will learn but a donor requested that we make an effort to set him up himself. After that he has free reigns, but he said he'd like to get some used tires for his car and a manicure and pedicure for his wife. I am overwhelmed with this support, and it will take me some time to fully process funds, but I think it's better to help with the basics rather than just hand over the lump sum which he agreed.
Update 4:
Brook is very thankful. I've been fronting some expenses. He spent his first time in a hotel for a long time. Today I will be helping him with medication, gas and food. This is the last update to this thread. I will post a complete update with pictures and information, once I am able to shift around SBD.
Me and my puppy were homeless all winter living in my jeep. We're finally doing better! Best of luck!
i'll make sure to print out the comments and this picture for him.
The kindness of so many people and the things steemit had helped and is helping blows mind, I'm in awe! This is revolutionary! =)
Great idea. 'video' the next meeting and 'break the news to him' gently ;-) And make sure he is sitting down - then post it as we all want to see it (please Gavin). Thanks once more for your humanity. Restore faith in humanity mate - thats what you have/are doing....
Wow, whoever contributed to this comment, it is extremely appreciated. I just realized the link wasn't working. Here's a pic of my pup. No matter what was going on in my life, this guy kept me strong.
thank you, hope you can share your story
I will, it's long and dark. Homelessness, addiction, self-harm, rape, molestation - I'll write an entry with details soon. I'm saving it for when I have enough SP to be heard. I have also been an active and effective activist starting and passing several amendments. =)
That's a sweet puppy!!!
Yeah, he's so damn awesome. I don't know how I got so lucky... You have no idea, he's evdrybodies favorite! =D
This is very sad, but we have the power to turn this man's life around right now. This, is the beauty of this platform. We can come together, learn, discuss, and take care of things as they are happening. Homelessness is a HUGE issue and is only getting worse through the current societal structure. Let's all chip in and help this man get on his feet! Is there a way I can donate more to brook??
Wow, the generosity of this website is finally shining! I was worried but posts like this and a guy living off a dollar a day making posts on a daily basis that make about 10-1000 dollars each! Awe inspiring..
Once in a night club old security man started talking with our company: his story was also right this. He lost his flat in a strange way, he felt sad, only some days before he found that job & everything he had except job were his poems. He asked permission to read them to us. Without any paper he read them about 30 minutes.
Who is your company? Will they listen to my story, even without steem power backing me up? =)
Brave 4, going to alko-zero) After appeared steemit)))))....not)
More info?
Absolutely OUTSTANDING idea and congratulations - and hopefully will be the largest 'payout' for any story so far. This is brilliant and shows exactly what steemit can and SHOULD do, once we put our minds to it. Thanks A MILLION Gavin for taking the time in doing this for him.
As I was explaining to a friend of mine yesterday 'Steemit does not just make somebody rich, or its not a get rich quick scheme. It has the power to change peoples lives - thats the point. Thats the ideology. Thats a cause worth 'steem'ing' for.'
It'll stabilize and be more and more effective in no time!
That is such a great idea. We can change somebodys life without having to spend a cent of our own. I am really happy to see brook willl see a nice financial boost now. I wish him best of luck and would love to see him post here one day and how this post influenced his life.
Great story and use case for steemit, this should hit the news with proof of course of the payment.
we now know that we as a community have the power to change lives all around the world.
Give this guy as many upvotes as possible! Maybe he can get a really cheap laptop and get started on public wifi! What an amazing story and I really wish the best for him and his wife.
God bless you Brook! Use some of the money to help others too! You certainly have my upvote bro...
I'll vote this up. Make sure to give us a progress report in about a month so we can have a "before" and "after". I hope this guy gets himself a place to stay, and buys himself a laptop, so he can provide content for Steemit and never be homeless again.
Well said...
This community is just... I can't even describe it. People say it's all about beautiful white girls but this is just how RIGHT the community is.
This is changing people's lives, this is #steemit
Wish you both a lot of success and keep making REAL stories happen!
I hope the people who were complaining about that are the people voting up this post. I want to see a post like this get 1000 upvotes. I want the people who talked about economic inequality to vote for this post.
take my upvote and get them back on track.
brilliant idea
It was remarkable how fast he got the concept, people giving to others. I'd love to have him do comments, but I literally called him on an old prepaid blackberry, he doesn't have any access.
I love the idea of using steemit for charity! It would be better to have some confirmation for these kind of posts that accumulate a lot of traction without any verification. Not saying you are benefiting off of someone elses back but it did happen on this platform in the past.
I just created free stickers that I'am sending out to people. Worldwide. For free. People could for example use them in order to brand their post images and at the same time verify themself a bit.
They are available here: https://steemit.com/steemit/@dunja/free-steemit-stickers
I have posted my linkedin, it is linked to my username. I am happy to provide any additional confirmation via slack.
I missed the link! I didn't mean to say anything towards you of course just that we need some sort of proper verification for posts so people dont fraud the system. Besides upvoting maybe we could also open an account where people can send micro donations and we distribute the funds accumulated to charity?
I love steemit for this.
We can help anybody with just a click,and it costs us nothing.
It is amazing how we can help out other people.
Im glad that devs of steemit made it :)
Actually, why isn't there a tweet about this from CEX.IO??? https://twitter.com/cex_io
Given how much scamming pervades online, i'd like to have more proof before I give to this cause--not personal, just more is better when dealing with money and I'd like to be assured it's going to the people it's supposed to go to.
Genius! This is so inspirational
I do not work for cex.io any longer.
Dunja I agree with your comment. I love this post, but one thing that is a bit disturbing is that I see no proof in this post, of this charity ever happening. I am sure brookdemar, is a great person and did has described in the post above. I applaud his actions. However this excellent system of charity that Steemit facilitates will be open to MAJOR abuse if we are not very careful with how me upvote, and thus allocated the community's resources for this type of activity.
As I member of the Bitshares community ( @Dantheman was the founder of Bitshares) I was privileged to be involved with the development of some of the basic ideas that Steemit employees. One of the important breakthroughs that developed early-on was the fact of paying for work that was done to improve the community/product was possible simply with the issuance of community (bitshares) tokens. This is much like steemit pays for content, charity, development etc. with Steem tokens. Using this system, however created a problem. Many people would be given tokens (read upvoted) on promises to do "XYZ" for the community. However, on many occasions- promises made, tokens issued, but the work would never get done, or would be very substandard. Similarly, the community would allocate tokens for someone to do charity and again many times, we could never be certain of the charity was actually competed.
The solution: These type of reward systems are excellent for fostering charity and improving our world, and we all want that. However if accept heart-felt stories and promises of charity in exchange for up- votes, in short order we will have a huge wave of fraudsters draining the resources for this community under false pretences. To be effective, the system of charity in Steemit needs to employ "pay (upvote) after the fact". ........ First do you charitable actions, the blog about it. Be very up front. Show receipts, smiling faces, whatever it takes to prove to the community the act was done. Only then should the community value the action with upvotes (I'll be the first! :-) .
Soon I foresee we will have a very large community at Steemit. I expect that we will see blogs dedicated exclusively to charity and charitable giving. Over-time these individuals or blogs will build a solid reputation here on Steemit for their charitable acts by following the recommendations above.
This is just one of the lessons we learned the hard way, in the initial experimentation of Bitshares and I hope to pass this lesson on to Steemit users so we can insure our community and platform remains strong.
i really agree with you all we need first is to ensure the rigidity and firmness of this plat form so as to continue the trend
I understand your concerns. I will set the bar high for this one, that is all I can do. I didn't expect such reception. I hope that my update following this makes it clear what standard the community should expect.
you make very good points but personally I think that this post will give value to steemit even if it is a scam... if you understand what I mean!!!
PS we must be for sure very carefully what we upvote!
I was just wondering about the issues you raise. I love cheritable deeds but I feel very suspicious about this here. Lots of people want to do good and help others, but I don't know what really happend here. I'm by no means an expert on crypto, social media platforms or anything around steemit. Just have a feeling that something is fishy. Having cruised around some Bitcoin forums, the feeling just got stronger, since people who do know a lot about this are talking. I would hate some poor guys plight being exploited for someones agenda.
In a world of so many unfortunate people who have lost friends, family and home! and really want to help everyone to find their own happiness ! this man is very lucky ! I wish him good luck , now he can begin a completely different life ! Steemit can affect a lot of people ! Thanks to the creators !
That is one of the beautiful things about Steemit. It's opening the crypto world to loads of people of all backgrounds, and it's so easy to understand the concepts.
yeah that's why nobody is giving me shit
This post is one of the most brilliant and touching Steem has seen so far. This should be in the news. Thank you @creationlayer
Steemit you're just way too awesome! Now let's take this story to the daily news. No matter how much time it'll take for this kind of story, these won't only make the daily news they will replace all news services like we know them today and make for a much better world, a world we can't even foresee right now.
I'd love see steem gain mass adoption. This is a way to help make that happen while also helping this man. Win-win. Id try to do it. Ill try contacting my local newspaper.
Awesome post!
@brookdemar
oh he's a happy guy, ya know. He's understands and is dealing with stuff, but maybe a little push up could help. We never know, but I'll do my best.
really steemiting
I also helped out a homeless man, he now understands the economics of STEEM!
Check out my post!
absolutely and maybe he can start bringing other voices count here one day :)
Steemit has done it again!!!! Good luck Brook
I usually don't like posts like "this" but this touched me somehow, take my upvote, Brook is going to the moon!
I just hope you are not a scammer.
If this is legit, steemit just did
I am legit, and will post updates. It will take a bit of time to move funds at this generosity level.
Remember the:
'Attention ! press like if you support this cause' -posts ?
Did my little click just help to help someone back on his own feet ?
I even made 0.5$ for commenting.
If thats steemit, I'm in.
Also: Thanks for helping Brook
no problem, it's going to take quite a bit of time out of my schedule, but I'll document the progress. I think we all need to demand transparency and trust in these types of campaigns, and my goal is to set a high standard, that we should hold people to. I estimate at least 20 hours outside of the office for this to happen.
This is a vote well spent! Imagin how Steem will change the Charity world with great stories and fast support?
Would love to hear updates and more posts.
I would like to see them too, it is something interesting that a person like @brookdemar got here :)
Keep it going buddy!
Firstly let me say "Hi Brook and Cindy" I too have had to face adversaries in my life and a very short spell of homelessness so i understand just a little of your life. From your introduction call, detailing all of the things you have been a part of and stepped up to, i feel inspired by your humanity and generosity of soul. You have put everyone before yourself all of your life. Cindy is a lucky woman! I truly and sincerely hope that this amazing network, Steemit, provides you both with the essential basics you need to move forward. I look forward to seeing and reading more of your stories. God bless x
This is a great use of steem and I'm glad to see the brighter side of humanity being represented on here. :) Much love to everyone involved in this post and best luck to you getting on your feet for those struggling! There are a LOT of homeless in my area and I generally give what I have left over to them, but I hadn't considered posting their stories on here to leverage some type of future for them.. It's upsetting to see honest hard-working people who've been screwed by circumstances and situations beyond their control struggle so deeply as to not have a stable shelter above their heads or a place to call their own. This is brilliant! You get a good humanitarian award! Keep passing on the love and more positivity will be injected into the universe. Something much much needed.
My voice is little about 0.005 cents. But anyway, I upvote the post. Be wise in your choice and it will bring you success!
I want to help him too.
Amazing!!! Please share every single time you will do anything with Broke as a proof of truth ;)
I.e. when you will open the bank account for him, when you will pay the nights in the hotel, when you will buy comfortable clothes for him and him wife etc... @brookdemar
I just listened to the voice recording. After I heard you tell him $1,600. I had to come back and look to see how much the post was at.... I started tearing up when I saw $7371 because I had just heard him say in the recording that mobile homes were like $7-9k.
You have my upvote. This is beautiful. In my opinion, this is what life is about. You are a great person. Some people get down on people that don't have money. Too many people would rather judge than help. It's not only his situation and his gratefulness that made me emotional, it's also your compassion. Beautiful. Keep it up!
Thanks for posting the phone recording. Brook sounds like a great guy.
This is really great work creationlayer.
Will be looking forward for Brook's contribution here. I will be so happy to read more of his stories.
This shows Us how powerful can steemit be ! by simple upvote and discussion we are helping Brook , the guy who ispired me today and showed me that my problems are tiny and I should laught every day
You have a very kind heart. Hope people like you will spread and multiply to make this world a better place.
This is absolutely incredible. It always restores my faith in humanity when people like you take time out of their day to stop and just talk to someone. You may not see it as doing anything special, but you are. You are doing something everyone before you didn't. You are helping. Thank you for being there for them when others were not.
This story is Amazing for million reasons!!! I love the way you approach Brook and offer him the opportunity to take him out of poverty. I am wishing you both all the best because this is the reason why hope in humanity is restored and you did this so well. HELPING HUMANITY :)
Youd better provide proof of every single step along the way.
@brookdemar
This should really be appreciated I read this post until the end, all Upvote
I am the 400th voter. Now at $6,862. It felt good clicking that up-vote button.
I've watched steemit work today in more ways than I could ever imagine! I needed to read this blog! It takes something like this to knock some people down to reality! My parents didn't earn a lot of money when I was a child, but I've never dreamed of being homeless! I hope my upvote can help! It would be awesome if he did learn how to use steemit! Best wishes! Thanks for contributing!
Good stuff!
Looking forward to see future articles Brook!
Just give him this card
https://steemit.com/steem/@ash/how-to-setup-and-topup-a-steem-powered-debit-card
nice i'm going to see if this would work
Also check this card out
https://steemit.com/blockchain/@bloggersclub/coinsbank-a-universal-crypto-solution-powered-by-the-blockchain
Thanks for your updates Gavin. I'm sure you are familiar with https://www.wb21.com - but in case not I wanted to make you aware of this article: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/278501
Looks like Brook could get his cryto into cash onto a debit card for 1% via bitcoin if I interpret this right...
sad story but i will pray for him
My upvote might not be worth as much as some people's but I love the idea and hope this works out well for Brook and his wife getting them the help they need to get their life back on track.
Thank you very very much for doing all this and more for Brook and his wife. You are a grat person, respect.
I sincerely hope that with your ongoing help they will, in a time, become more selfsufficient and, finally, get a home of sorts.
We as a community will help with our contribution through the Steemit platform. Let us show and prove that this system can work and will help people in real life, not just with virtual crypto tokens.
Again, thank you and good luck. You are the best!
thanks for updates Gavin. Keep them coming. We all see 'your true colours shining through' mate. Fair play to yea!!!
truly amazing. well done ='-)
On Facebook I have always joked at people who do charity through "likes". But on Steemit, surprisingly, it is not a joke anymore.
much love for brook and cindy, i hope they get more better life
Incredible. Faith in humanity restored.
My hats off to everybody.
what a real life story to share.
This is a lovely thing to read, thank you for sharing.
Hope he will write soon his own storys here. Nice, very nice!
You are a kind soul for doing this! No one should go without food, clothing and shelter. These are the basic things every one must have. Thanks for making a difference to his life! :)
Thats so amazing and inspiring!!!! This is insane! :)) Well done for doing this :))) My up vote for sure :) xxx
Get this man a motor home!