Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
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Alex Cabrero Reporting A single dollar bill might not seem like much. A group of young men thought the same, until they put their heads together and came up with a plan.
Now that plan is going to benefit a charity in a big way.
Pick any night these young men meet in their group, and most likely there's a game and plenty of jokes to go around. But when one of their leaders put a single dollar bill on the table recently, they knew this meeting was going to be different.
Austin Nebeker/ Sandy: "I was down for a Wendy's junior bacon cheeseburger."
Most people would think of spending it right away. This challenge, though, was to see what else they could do with that single dollar.
Craig Osterloh/ Adult Leader: "He suggested that the boys maybe, each of them give a dollar to match it and see if it will grow. Then we had ten bucks."
That gave them an idea. How many people did they know who could match what was already in the pot? Soon ten dollars turned into 20, into 40, 80, and so on, with exact matches every step up.
Chad Gessell/ Sandy: "Yeah, you're like, ahhh, we could get a couple hundred bucks out of this."
Austin Nebeker: "I never thought it would get to this level."
In just a couple of months, they're at 20-thousand dollars. Their goal is a million. They're donating it all to Operation Smile, a group that helps people like Jose Villegas.
Jose Villegas/ Operation Smile Patient: "Whenever I walked in a crowd, people were looking at me, sometimes laughing at me."
Eighteen years ago, he had a two-pound tumor hanging from his chin. Doctors from Operation Smile cut it off, and using plastic surgery, made him look normal.
Thousands of children across the world are born with other defects on their faces, the kinds of defects that wouldn't help them lead a normal life.
Operation Smile gives them that life.
Jose Villegas: "Operation Smile not only changed my looks, but also my heart because now I know how to give myself to others because of Operation Smile."
Craig Osterloh: "They go from being outcasts to being part of their community overnight."
"Twenty thousand dollars will pay for almost a hundred surgeries.
And a million will pay for a lot more.
Chad Gessell: "It's the whole chain effect. If you can get it going, then it can get bigger."
Much bigger than a single dollar bill.
If you'd like to help the group, follow the link above.
