Hopefully, we engage in acts of kindness for their own intrinsic rewards. However, it’s also pretty amazing when generosity gets reciprocated.
TikTok creator Zachery Dereniowski is best known for approaching random strangers, requesting a dollar, then giving the first person to offer one a large sum of money and helping make one of their dreams come true.
On February 17, Dereniowski stood on a street outside the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada, holding a yellow, smiley-face balloon, asking folks if they’d buy it for a dollar.
Everyone turned him down until he was approached by a friendly man named David Kamara. Kamara handed Dereniowski a flyer, explaining that he was a musician. Whipping out an iPad to show off some of his work, Kamara’s energy was instantly infectious.
“I grew up in the hood, so when we were little we used to go to the Dollarama to get the dollar store mics…I never knew it would manifest into this,” he told Dereniowski.
It wasn’t until after he listened to the song that Dereniowski asked Kamara if he’d like to buy the balloon for a dollar. Without missing a beat, Kamara upped the offer to an e-transfer of $5, saying “a dollar is not going to do much.”
For helping him out, Dereniowski gave Kamara the “magic” balloon, telling him that it would help “manifest” his biggest wish once he let it go in the air.
Kamara knew exactly what he wanted to manifest—a Grammy.
@mdmotivator “I’ll be sending the money to my family in Africa” 🥺❤️ (L1NK 1N B10) #mystery #music #money #africa #spotify #viral #kindness ♬ original sound – Zachery Dereniowski
(Note: We don’t recommend letting balloons go for environmental protection and safety reasons.)
Dereniowski didn’t come with any trophies up his sleeve, but he did give Kamara $2,000 on the spot to use towards his music career. Kamara, unsurprisingly, was absolutely elated.
“I can’t believe you just did that bro. Nobody would do that for me!” he exclaimed, adding that he would be sending some of the 2,000 to his brothers and sisters in Africa.
“You just blessed me, so I can bless,” he told Dereniowski.
To Kamara’s surprise, the blessings would keep coming. Dereniowski informed Kamara that his millions of followers would now know where to stream Kamara’s music. The good deed influencer even wrote an on-screen caption showing that Kamara’s work was available on Spotify and Apple.
The clip, which received over 11 million views, gave Kamara an instant surge to his fan base. According to an interview with Insider, his Instagram following grew from 16,000 to over 63,900, and his TikTok (which was only recently created) went from only 40 followers to over 43,600. Holy moly.
Just as he dreamed of, Kamara’s music career has seen a major shift as well. His two most popular songs, “Replay” and “For you,” now have been listened to on Spotify over 280,000 times collectively.
Kamara told Insider that he had no idea who Dereniowski really was, but thought he might need money to get home, which is why he offered $5. That good deed has been reciprocated beyond his wildest imagination. And true to his word, he continued to share his blessings with others. In addition to sending that money back to his family, he plans on giving it to some of Dereniowski’s fans who shared their personal situations in the video’s comments.
Kindness really can be the gift that keeps on giving.