Friday, December 6, 2024

New York Times Story About Homeless 8 Year Old Chess Champion Raises $81K In Less Than Three Days for Kid, Family

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On Saturday, 8 year old Tanitoluwa Adewumi and his family were living in a New York City shelter. They are homeless.

But a story in the New York Times by Nicholas Kristof has turned that all around. Since Saturday, $81,000 has been raised for the family on gofundme.com.

The incentive here is that Tani is a grade school chess champion. His parents — who emigrated here a year ago from Nigeria– are hard workers. But they have nowhere to live.

Tani’s teacher, Russ Makofksy, started the GoFundMe page. He writes in the updates today: “This past weekend at the New York State Chess Championships he claimed the title of New York State Primary Chess Champion! (Top Players K – 3rd Grade).

Read the link to the Times story. Amazing! We’ll check back in and see how the campaign proceeds.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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