If You See Something, Do Something

Roaming the city offering free favors, helping hands and even cold hard cash, a cadre of idealistic young New Yorkers meet a surprisingly skeptical audience.

Photos by Jika González

On the steamy 42nd Street platform of the 4/5/6 train, a young man tries to hand money to a middle-aged woman pushing a stroller, but she won’t take it. She smiles modestly and shakes her head at him, pulling her children closer. The man boards a train and begins.

“Excuse me ladies and gentlemen, I’m not here to ask for money, I’m actually here to give it away,” says Jesse Speer, a blond, six-foot-tall twenty-two-year-old, to a train car full of sweaty, tired people who barely look up. His best friend of ten years, Josh Goolcharan, 25, is nearby.

“There’s no catch. We’re The Doers Network, and we’re here to spread random acts of kindness. I’m going to ask a question. If you know the answer shout it out.”