The latest attention-grabbing crowdfunding campaign isn’t about reuniting two TV stars or making another Star Wars fan film – no, all Azel Prather Jr. needs is $300 for a plane ticket to Miami, so that he can “save his relationship.”
Prather said his girlfriend and her friends went to Florida for spring break, which has him worried that she will find someone new. “We have a great thing going and I would hate to see it go down the drain for a little sand and sun,” the 25-year-old Maryland resident wrote on his GoFundMe page. “If you can find it in your heart to donate ANYTHING to help save my relationship I would greatly appreciate it.”
His campaign has now been shared 1,700 times on social media. After starting off more with “a bump than a bang,” the Washington Post picked up Prather’s story Saturday.
He told the paper he was sincerely worried. “I think the sun just melts all the morals in Miami. It’s a free-for-all!” he said.
That sincerity attracted its own supporters. “Sir, I read your amazing story and I must say you are absolutely right,” wrote one Reggie Reg on GoFundMe. “In the Bible it says ‘thou woman not loyaleth when it Miami’ – Austin 3:16. So with that being said The First Baptist of Freebands would like to donate to your cause.” (Reg gave $5.)
Of course, not everyone fully believed in the merits of Prather’s cause.
“The lady I got love for miles away,” one user on Twitter joked. “Plane tickets expensive. Let me pull a ‘Zell.’ ”
Prather responded, “My GoFundMe was from the heart … meant it.”
The cause seemed momentarily lost – three days in, the campaign had raised only $91, according to the Post – and Prather said his girlfriend’s social media activity had him worried.
“She’s posted on Instagram two times and both times she was in a bathing suit and it received more than 200 ‘Likes,’ ” he told the Post. “I asked her to stop. That’s too many likes for me.”
In an update Saturday, Prather wrote on GoFundMe about a similar photo posted by his girlfriend. “I should be on that wall beside her. I can tell the Miami sun is doing exactly what I thought it would do. Things have escalated quickly … Help.”
But he can now take heart: As of this writing, the campaign has raised $325 from 24 people. He told the Post his girlfriend will return later this week.
“The weekend is halfway over in Maryland,” Prather said. “But every day is the weekend in Miami.”
This article originally appeared on People.com.
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