American pianist Tonee Carter, who plays at the airport in Atlanta, Georgia, has a new Guardian Angel. An Instagrammer invited his 220,000 followers to send the musician an online tip… The biggest he has ever received!
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American pianist Tonee “Valentine” Carter can’t believe her ears at first. 175 people paid him 10,000 dollars in tip via an online pot, he tells him Carlos Whittaker, a man he has just met.
The latter is a speaker and influencer on Instagram. Bewitched by the music of the pianist at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia, where Tonee Carter has played for nine years, Carlos Whittaker has decided to mobilize his Instagram community of more than 200,000 fans with videos of the musician in action. .
Thirty minutes after its publication on the social network, the pot, launched on the Venmo site, already amounts to 10,000 dollars, without the pianist knowing anything! Left online for 24 hours, the prize pool eventually reached over $ 60,000.
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“Do you know what makes me happy?” This man playing all his drunk in a corner of the airport […] without anyone noticing », Carlos Whittaker writes in his video posted on Instagram. The American influencer was preparing to return home to Tennessee, depressed by the cancellation of a conference he was to host, when he let himself be caught up in the music of Tonee Carter. “I thought to myself, what if I asked my Instagram followers if we could give him the biggest tip he ever received? », he told CNN.
” But what are you saying ? “, cowardly, dumbfounded and on the verge of tears, the pianist, at the announcement of the news. ” I lost my mind. I thought he was joking and I couldn’t believe it ”, says the musician contacted by CNN. “These are the kinds of things I do. I love to donate and help people, but I never expected someone to do it for me ”, he adds.
The pianist cried for days
When her father takes her to a Ray Charles concert, Tonee Carter is 6 years old and discovers what he will do with his life, traces CNN. Even today, sixty years later, the man is happy to play at the Atlanta airport. “I love working here. This is the best job I ever had, he told CNN. It’s a different energy, people who go on vacation or on a business trip […] are happy. And they brighten up when they walk past me, if their day is bad. They start patting their feet and clapping their hands on the table. “
The story of Tonee Carter, told by Whittaker on Instagram, touched Internet users. Himself ” happy “At 66, Carter still brightens the lives of travelers around the world. And this, despite a kidney disease that he has been dragging himself since 2008 and which nails him in this role of sedentary musician for nine years. On dialysis every night, the musician can no longer travel or play on cruises, as he always has.The biggest tip Carter had ever received was $ 600, before she met Carlos Whittaker. “It made me cry for days, not because of the total, but because of the individual donations, Carter explained to CNN. I looked at all the donations and saw so many that were $ 0.50, $ 1, or $ 2. My heart pounded because I knew they were giving me what they had. People gave for love. ” Since then, the pianist has referred to Whittaker as his «Ange» and plans to redistribute some of this money that fell from the sky.
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