No doubt in your Internet travels you've come across the "Success Kid" meme, featuring a baby making a fist with a scrunched-up expression of determination. It began in 2007 and eventually became known as "Success Kid". The popularity of the image led CNN to describe Sammy Griner, the boy depicted in the photo, as "likely the Internet's most famous baby".
A recent image of the teen, now 18, has emerged and he is a far cry from his younger self. Sammy now has long, wavy brown hair — drastically different to the light brown locks he debuted 17 years ago. He is also seen with a bit of facial hair forming on his chin and puts on a weak smile in a similarly toothless display.
Griner's mom Laney said that she snapped the original photo of Sammy when he was just 11 months old during a day at the beach. Although he looked contented with a victory, Sammy was actually about to shove a fistful of sand into his mouth, she said.
Justin discovered his kidneys were failing before the birth of their son and he spent about four hours a day, three days a week undergoing dialysis. He was unable to work and never has energy. The longer he was on the dialysis, the higher the chance that he could develop complications. 'Six years on dialysis is getting to be a long time,' Laney Griner said. 'It's wearing on him. I just wanted to get him healthy.' wearing adj.令人筋疲力竭的
Laney decided to launch a GoFundMe site to help find a living donor and raise funds toward the costs of Justin's transplant surgery. Medicare would cover 80 percent of Justin's post-surgery costs, but the Griner's still needed $12,000 to cover prescription drugs for the first year alone, noting that Justin would need to be on a variety of prescription drugs for the rest of his life.
Although Laney considered using the Success Kid meme to help with exposure for Justin's GoFundMe, she decided against it to make the fundraiser solely about her husband. She later changed her mind and said that without the Success Kid Meme, the fundraiser would not have been able to attract 300 donors in its first five days.
Thanks to Success Kid's popularity, the GoFundMe site reached $9,000 in five days. The story was then picked up by several media outlets, including CNN, BuzzFeed, and Time and the campaign was shared on the Reddit website, which brought the total donations to an incredible $83,000 only a few days later.
The GoFundMe resulted in a whopping $101,125 being raised for Justin Griner and his family.
Laney's follow-up messages to Justin's supporters expressed the family's deep appreciation for the acts of kindness from so many strangers.
"Justin is on his way to pick up his wife and go get a transplant. It's really happening, right now. This is absolutely the best news we could receive and it's totally thanks to you… I can't thank you all enough for getting us to our goal and way beyond. We're so thankful and humbled by the outpouring of support and kindness. This has all been far beyond our wildest hopes for fundraising. We never could've dreamed of this. I'll be eternally grateful for the support and hope you all gave to us. I love the internet so much." “贾斯汀正在去接受移植手术的路上。这真的实现了，就在此刻。这绝对是我们能收到的最好的消息。这完全要感谢大家…… 我不知道怎么感谢你们所有人，是你们让我们完成了筹集目标，并且远超预期。对于大家源源不断的支持和善意，我们致以最真诚谦卑的感谢。我们做梦都想不到能筹到远远超出预想的资金。我将永远感激你们给予的支持和希望。我太爱互联网了。”
Justin said he's been blown away by the messages of support he received after the operation and said that the meme has only been positive for the family. "As much bad stuff you might see in the news every day, it's refreshing to see for the most part that people are good and want to take care of each other," he said.
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