Brighten Your Day

This Guy Meets With A Homeless Woman Every Tuesday To Teach Her How To Read

May 5, 2016

Greg Smith works in downtown Orlando and has been passing by the same homeless woman every week. She never asks him for money, but always greets him with a smile.

"Meet Amy Joe," Smith wrote in a Facebook post. "For the last few weeks each Tuesday, Amy Joe and I meet at the corner of Pine street and S. Orange ave in downtown Orlando (I work downtown and am always moving around the city). Each day for about a week I saw Amy Joe at this corner and she never asked for money...she simply said 'Good morning Sir, have a great day. God Bless!!' and smiled. I wear a suit to work everyday so I get asked a lot for money quite often downtown...but never once from Amy Joe."

"Every Tuesday Amy Joe and I now have Lunch together. For 30 min to an hour I get to hear how positive she is even though she really has nothing. Last week Amy Joe kind of dropped a bomb on me...she cannot read. Amy Joe does not smoke, drink, have a drug addiction, or anything to that nature. She simply just has never had anyone teach her how to read. She told me how hard it was for her to find work not being able to read. She began to tell me any money that she can collect she uses to check out library books that help with learning to read instead of buying FOOD. This crushed me!!! She would rather learn to read to maybe find a job then eat!!!"

" I have been blessed with two amazing parents and a family that has always had resources to provide me with anything I wanted to do. Amy Joe has not. So now not only do Amy Joe and I sit and have lunch, I'm teaching her to read. I rent one library book a week and we read it together Tuesday and she practices on her own throughout the rest of the week.

This post is in no way to make anyone feel sorry for Amy Joe or brag about me doing something for someone less fortunate. I wanted to share this because maybe this can lead to someone helping another person. There are a lot of people out there like Amy Joe, not all are hungry, homeless, or hurt. Some could be your family or friends. Helping someone could be as easy as saying hello and smiling. I have been fortunate enough in my finances that I can take care of Amy Joe, so that's what I'm going to do. If this is something that hit home with you, Like & Share it...if not, that's okay too. But you never know what you can do for someone until you try. Who is your Amy Joe?"

Smith also launched a GoFundMe page for Amy Joe, and has even put her up in a hotel for a few days to help move along the process. As of May 5, 2016, Smith has raised $5,000 of his $10,000 goal.

The donations will go to food, clothing, a library card, and much more to help the less fortunate in the Downtown Orlando area.