>Blake Canterbury’s non-profit, beremedy, has given some form of aid or donation to over 113,000 people since he founded the organization in 2009. Canterbury said while growing up in Griffin, he saw many needs going unfilled and didn’t know how to respond at the time.
“I had many friends who came from somewhat “well-off” families and others whose families struggled pretty badly. Many times I would see one family buying an upgraded refrigerator, stove, etc., and I would have another friend’s family who needed one and couldn’t afford it. I was left in a helpless place because I didn’t want to embarrass anyone and I didn’t know how to go about it,” he said.
“When I moved to Atlanta I saw the gap between those demographics widen. [There were] way more people struggling and homeless, and at the same time even more wealth,” he continued.
As Canterbury witnessed this situation, he also found others that wanted to help but didn’t know how, either. “I found across the board that every person I’ve ever met regardless of age, gender, religion wanted to help people they just didn’t know how, just like I did.”
Canterbury paired his keen observations with his knack for utilizing social media and his non-profit organization, beremedy was born. “We created an organization to make it easy to help your “neighbor.”
Canterbury uses quotation marks around the word, “neighbor” because social media, on a virtually level, makes everyone in the world “neighbors.” People here in the United States with a twitter, facebook or basic internet connection can log on to Canterbury’s website, profile or twitter page, see a listed need, and help to fill it.
One of Canterbury’s main goals with beremedy is to “create an organization designed to be the easiest way to help other people” and “to create a brand so strong that when someone thinks, ‘I want to help someone,’ for whatever reason, they automatically go to beremedy.”
A few of beremedy’s past larger projects include helping during the Haiti disaster and “Stuff the Bus.” Canterbury spent two weeks helping an orphanage in Haiti after the earthquake disaster, and soon after appeared on 11 Alive to share his story. “Stuff the Bus” was a partnership donation drive with United Way to fill school buses with school supplies for underprivileged children.
Beremedy also fills individuals’ needs, evidenced by their most recent projects. “We just helped a single mom, who has to put her children into voluntary childcare five days a week because she can’t afford to feed them but two days a week. She needed everything for her six-month-old babies. Through social networking, we provided cribs, strollers, clothes, formula, car seats, and toys,” said Canterbury.
“Today we just received a need for a family whose house just burned down. We are assessing the situation and will be posting [on the website and social media pages] the essential needs of that family as soon as possible.”
Another important function of using social media to spread the word about social needs is that if a person isn’t in a position to help, they can still use their personal social media sites to spread the word even further. “I think the most important thing for us is to tell a story effective and compelling enough for it to cause someone to want to help. And if that person can’t help, that they pass the story on through by word of mouth and reposting the story through their personal social media pages. Each person has their own network of people who are willing to help if they just knew the need around them,” said Canterbury.
Though Canterbury didn’t elaborate, he hinted that there are some major events planned for beremedy in the 2011 year. “Some very secret information; I’ll just say we are going to make a major step to make it easier for you to help other people. No one has ever done anything like what we are going to do. We will have a major announcement on what that is by late March or early April. So please stay tuned. We will need everyone’s help!”
Canterbury has already revolutionized the people’s options for ways to give back to the community and to those in need. Individuals can now hear about, and respond to the specific needs of others in a matter of minutes via the world wide web. Canterbury says the best thing people can do to help beremedy is to “follow us on twitter, like us on Facebook or sign up for our email list and tell everyone you know to do the same. Countless lives will be changed by more people knowing.”
For more information, visit http://www.beremedy.org/.
The GRIP 
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