Man's Internet mission gets thousands of smiles
CENTER TWP — Tyler Trimbur smiled and more than 49,000 people around the world quickly smiled back.
Trimbur is the founding member and inspiration of the local Facebook phenomenon “Smile Movement :) Worldwide.” Only days old, the group has garnered tens of thousands of new smilers every day.
A good number of the posts on the social media page are inspirational. Grinning photographs are accompanied by personal stories of toddlers who have overcome life-threatening medical issues. Others say they're smiling because they have escaped addiction or abusive situations or near-death accidents.
And a lot of people smile just because they are happy.
“I needed a smile,” Trimbur, 24, of Center Township says of his inspiration for the movement.
Trimbur, a waiter at the Juniper Grille in Cranberry Township, said he was having a difficult day when a stranger in a bank smiled and said hello.
That one little act so changed the course of his emotions that Trimbur paid it forward by posting a “Free Smile” on a social media page dedicated to buying and selling household goods.
The post said: “Just giving away a free smile today because everyone needs one and no mater what is wrong in your life you need to just let go let whatever higher power you believe in work. Smile today because someone else may need it too!!!”
In 20 minutes it had more than 200 likes.
Over the next few days the response was so overwhelming that the original site took down Trimbur's post because it was interfering with that page's mission.So about a week ago, Trimbur started a second page dedication to the smile mission, and the smiles have spread worldwide with posts in Canada, Italy and Ecuador.But as far-reaching as this site has been, the biggest impact it turns out is on a woman who lives just a mile from Trimbur.Trimbur bought a $15 gas card and offered it to the person who posted the first smiling photograph to get 200 likes.Avery Cooper, 3, was the winner.Avery, who has the rare chromosome disorder Trisomi 17, is significantly behind on personal milestones. For example, she cannot talk. Or walk.She's been in and out of Children's hospital, and relies on a feeding tube.“Our goal is to have her walking someday,” said her mother, Alisha Hoover Cooper. “But as long a she smiles every day that makes it worth it.”Cooper said she posted her grinning daughter's photograph because, “I wanted to share her smile with the world.”And when she won the contest and the gift card, she decided to do a little paying it forward of her own. She's coupling the card with other donated items in a basket to be gifted to a different family struggling with regular trips.Avery's trips to the hospital, which began in 2012 with 134 days during the year in the hospital, have dwindled to seven days this year.“It's a relief,” Alisha said. “So I'd like to help another family.”Also, Trimbur's parents, Richard and Darlene Trimbur, offered him $100 if he got 20,000 followers. Trimbur said he plans to donate that money to the basket too.“You can make one smile go a long way,” Trimbur said. “But right now I'm having happy tears.”
