LIVONIA, Mich. – There’s no telling what the 100 strangers chosen randomly to get a $100 bill from representatives of Co-Op Services CU will do with the cash, but it’s predictable what they all do afterward–smile.
That’s the assessment of Jeremy Cybulski, who is traveling Detroit-area cities on behalf of the credit union to hand out the C-notes to unsuspecting 100 bystanders over 100 days as part of Co-Op Service’s Project 100 promotion. "It’s nice to be on the receiving end of one of those, but it’s also pretty nice to be giving out 68 of those; to see the expression on somebody’s face is awesome," Cybulski told The Credit Union Journal yesterday of the progress of the campaign.
The promotion has created a local sensation, as Cybulski travels from community to community in the Detroit area to give out $100's.
The recipients are asked as part of the promotion what they would if they were given $100 and to consider giving back to the community in some way. "There’s no catch and the people can do whatever they want with it. We’re asking them to take a moment and consider how they can give back," said Cybulski, of the campaign to spur community action.
Recipients of the easy cash get a Project 100 t-shirt and business cards they are asked to share with family and friends. The interactions–the random choice of a recipient–and the responses are being recorded and are available at a link to the credit union’s website, whatisproject100.com, as well as the social networking sites, YouTube, MySpace and Twitter. The site lists two dozen non-profits that people can volunteer to help.
Cybulski said one woman he gave the $100 to went out and used half of it to buy canned foods and donated it to a local food bank.
One man singled out in his neighborhood took the $100 across the street and gave it as a gesture to a neighbor just out of the hospital.
One woman bought pizza for the neighborhood kids.
The credit union, which began the campaign in June, has kept a low profile, keeping its name out of the promotion until recently when it was identified as the creator. "It’s been great, the positive response we’ve received from it, but we didn’t want people to connect us so much to it," said Cybulski. "We felt that where the money was coming from wasn’t as important as opposed to where the money is going."
So far, Co-Op Services representatives have visited Detroit and the surrounding communities of Dearborn, Livonia, Southfield, Southgate, Westland and several others to spread their largesse.
Project 100 was designed by the credit union’s ad firm, Edge Creative Group in Ferndale, which has been performing the filming, editing, website design, and media handling for the campaign.
Starting today there are 31 days left.
