--- title: "Success Kid" GoFundMe Campaign For His Dad's Kidney Surpasses Goal description: The kid behind the "Success Kid" meme has raised a lot of money for his dad's kidney transplant. canonical: https://time.com/3823341/success-kid-fundraiser-father-kidney-meme/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-15T18:54:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:18:47.240Z article:section: Health og:title: "Success Kid" GoFundMe Campaign For His Dad's Kidney Surpasses Goal og:description: The kid behind the "Success Kid" meme has raised a lot of money for his dad's kidney transplant. og:url: https://time.com/3823341/success-kid-fundraiser-father-kidney-meme/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: "Success Kid" GoFundMe Campaign For His Dad's Kidney Surpasses Goal twitter:description: The kid behind the "Success Kid" meme has raised a lot of money for his dad's kidney transplant. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Boy of 'Success Kid' Meme Fundraises For Father's Kidney Transplant > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=c66c6784-4e72-48fa-a83d-90c268459c01&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Apr 15, 2015 6:54 PM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Apr 15, 2015 6:54 PM UTC If you’ve spent time on the Internet, you’re probably familiar with the “Success Kid” meme: A young baby looking confident with a fist full of sand. As it turns out, memes are real people—[who face real problems](http://abcnews.go.com/Health/internet-success-kids-dad-kidney-transplant/story?id=30288035). The child behind “Success Kid” is 8-year-old Sammy Griner, and his father is in need of a kidney transplant. The Griner family recently launched a [GoFundMe campaign](http://www.gofundme.com/opp5cs) to raise money for the medical bills. The family was asking for around $75,000 and has already surpassed that goal. According to ABC News, the site reached about $9,000 in just five days. Currently, funds are at over $86,000 in just a week. > [](https://twitter.com/BuzzFeed/status/588144794502696960) Sammy’s mom, Laney Griner, told ABC News that while at first she wasn’t happy about a photo from her son at the beach had gone viral, today she’s happy it happened. “By now, it’s just out there. What am I going to do? At least it’s positive,” she said. “Without that happening, how much could I get this recognition about my husband’s kidney transplant?” > [](https://twitter.com/laneymg/status/588378192886378496) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3823341/success-kid-fundraiser-father-kidney-meme/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3823341/success-kid-fundraiser-father-kidney-meme/"},"headline":"Boy of 'Success Kid' Meme Fundraises For Father's Kidney Transplant","datePublished":"2015-04-15T18:54:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:18:47.240Z","description":"The GoFundMe campaign has already raised over $86,000","url":"https://time.com/3823341/success-kid-fundraiser-father-kidney-meme/","keywords":["Healthcare","Newsfeed"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/healthcare/","name":"Healthcare"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3823341/success-kid-fundraiser-father-kidney-meme/","name":"Boy of 'Success Kid' Meme Fundraises For Father's Kidney Transplant"}}]}] ```