One week ago school bus monitor Karen Klein was being teased by a group of high school students and was driven to tears. Following that event a student who captured the bullying on video uploaded her reaction to YouTube and it went viral. A 25-year-old Reddit user than started a fundraising event to send Klein on vacation at a cost of $5,000. As Reddit followers often have a tendency to do that fundraiser blew up beyond belief and Karen is now opening up about the $650,000 she is receiving so far.
Speaking on Monday’s Today show the Greece Central School District employee said of the charity she has received:
“I keep thinking, ‘What have I done? It’s like I almost don’t feel like I deserve it.”
When asked what she plans to do with that kind of money she responded:
“What would anybody do with that much money?”
She says part of the money will be invested and help with her retirement while she also plans to help her family because ‘they need, they need, they need.”
Karen Klein says she’s not sure if she’ll return to her job even though she has since received apologies from many of the kids involved in the incident.
For Karen she says the money is a bonus but it has been the public support that has most touched her.
“What I am glad about is the fact that it has come out, and everyone knows what goes on,” she said. “I’ve gotten so many notes from people who have been bullied, who’ve been very hurt, and my heart goes out to these people.”
It looks as if Karen’s social good fundraising campaign has turned into a social good campaign against bullying and for Karen that appears to be a far bigger surprise than the $650,000 she is so far receiving.