When most people compose a light-hearted Twitter post for their followers, they never expect it to end up raising thousands of dollars for a worthy cause.
That is exactly what happened to Auburn junior, Kressie Kornis. One of her tweets went viral and ended up helping her raise money for one of her biggest passions, saving the bees.
On December 28, Kornis re-posted a tweet by a popular Twitter page called “What Girls Want” and added her own commentary poking fun at high school fashion trends. Within hours, it got thousands of retweets and likes.
Girls who wore this in high school are now wearing their neon pink chevron infinity scarf while tucking their kids named Kayleeigh and Cashton into bed, and updating Facebook of their latest pyramid scheme: Lipscence https://t.co/ifyQI8aMVo
— Kressie (@kressiek) December 29, 2017
When her tweet went viral, Kornis was pleasantly surprised. It has now been seen by over 11.9 million people and posted to multiple popular Instagram accounts and Reddit forums.
“I try to make funny tweets often since my lifelong dream is to be a comedian and I thought this was one of my better ones, so I figured it would get maybe 30-40 retweets and favorites,” Kornis said. “I didn’t foresee the tweet going viral at all. ”
Kornis is the president of For the Bees, also known as Auburn for Bees, a non-profit on-campus organization dedicated to raising awareness of the bee population crisis.
A photo of Kornis on the concourse holding up a For the Bees sticker that says, “sit down, bee humble,” referencing a popular song by artist Kendrick Lamar, was set as her profile picture, and many twitter users began to take notice and direct message her asking where they could buy one.
“I replied that I’d be happy to mail them one since we hand them out for free on the concourse if they wanted to give me their address. ” Kornis said. “I honestly thought it would be maybe 10 or so sticker requests because I didn’t think that many people would be so willing to give a complete stranger on the Internet their address. Immediately after, I began to get hundreds and hundreds of DMs and after talking to a few other Auburn for Bees members, we decided it would be best to announce we ’d mail one to anyone who donates any amount to us on our Venmo, because we were going to have to buy a ton of stamps and print more stickers. ”
The club raised $1,200 in the first 24 hours after Kornis posted the club’s venmo link for donations. They’ve now raised over $2,000, but are still steadily getting a flow of donations.
“I’m thankful that my fifteen minutes of fame gave me an opportunity to share my platform to so many people ,” Kornis said.
Many students at other universities also messaged Kornis about starting similar clubs at their own schools.
“I’ve had dozens of people ask me about starting their own chapter at their university which has been extremely exciting, ” Kornis said. “In some cases, it’s multiple people from the same school separately messaging me, so it’s been awesome bringing them together and helping begin their journey. I’m going to coach them through it and share my process of starting it and be there for any questions along the way. I feel like I’ve made a ton of new friends who are passionate about the same things I am. ”
Weeks later, Kornis still has direct messages about the stickers steadily coming in.
“I’d estimate I have about 4,500 messages I still have to respond to, ” Kornis said. “It’s been taking me a long time because I’ll have to ask them for their Venmo name, address, and then check both apps to confirm. Fortunately, most people have been super patient and understanding of it .”
For the Bees started last year when Kornis decided she needed to take a stand to help fix the depleting bee population. It started out as just herself and some friends from her sorority. The club now has 83 members.
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Gabby Dance, senior in journalism with a minor in women's studies, is the assistant campus editor of The Auburn Plainsman.
