When the students from the Raymond Hall campus of Providence College learned that their favorite security guard, James Mogaji, hadn’t met his family in Nigeria for 11 years, they stepped forward for help. As per ABC-affiliated WCVB-TV, Brandon Reichert, a freshman student from the college, created a GoFundMe page in February to organize a fundraising campaign for James. The students were able to raise nearly $3,000 within the first 24 hours, and over $30,000 altogether. When they surprised James with the money to visit his family, he broke down in tears.
On March 1, Brandon requested his friends and followers on X (formerly Twitter) to help him raise funds for James. "Any donation is appreciated," he wrote in his post, in which he also added a link to the fundraising page. The GoFundMe page was titled “Help James Visit His Family," and on it, Brandon explained why James mattered so much to all of them. “James is without a doubt the best security guard here at Providence College. He works four overnight shifts a week. For those of you who don't know James, he truly is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. He greets everybody with a smile and always welcomes conversations no matter what time of the night you run into him. He has expressed how much he enjoys his job here at PC, and we would love to be able to allow him to visit his family. He does not know how much we appreciate him, and hope that this shows to him how much he means to our community," it read.
When the students handed the money to the security guard, he got emotional and couldn't stop sobbing. It was a heartwarming sight, and for a moment, the students and James felt like a family.
Brandon posted an update on the page, saying, “Tonight, we were able to gift James with enough money for him to travel to Nigeria to visit his family in June! I’d like to thank everyone who donated as you can see what an impact you made on such an incredible man. All further donations will be given to James at the end of the school year in May to fund another trip!”
Showering James with praises, Brandon added, "He's just the kindest soul anyone has ever met in this building. He means so much to us he's so important. It was amazing how fast everyone connected and were able to put it together for him." The other student who helped organize this campaign with Brandon was Daniel Singh. Once they had organized the campaign, they walked to James and sophomore student Daniel revealed the plan to him, "You told us a while ago that you wanted to see your family in Nigeria that you haven’t seen in a long time, so we came together and spread the word, and we started a GoFundMe because we take care of our own because that’s what we do at Providence College. They've done that for me, we've done that for each other, so now we're doing it for you. You're of the family, so our gift to you is a trip to Nigeria."
Image Source: GoFundMe
James was overwhelmed by this gesture of generosity and love and so was the Dean of Students, Sean Sears. He said, "Tears to my eyes. Such an act of kindness. It was such a great reminder of the good our Friars are bringing into the world and a great reminder of how we can all do a small act of kindness every day that can make a difference." James also thanked each and every student from the bottom of his heart.
A man named Leah Quinn (@lkquinnco), who claimed to be a friend of Brandon's mom, shared the whole video of the surprise on TikTok. He sang praises of the college student and called him "the most incredibly kind, thoughtful and generous soul." He added: "This act of kindness shows us all, that we are more alike than not. Brandon’s ability to always do the right thing and lead, show compassion and gratitude has been a highlight of my life watching him grow up into the amazing young man he is."
Quinn also mentioned Brandon's mother, who raised him alone, for "shaping him to be everything he is" today. It read: "I want to give Jess Reichert all the respect in the world for raising this boy as a single mother and shaping him to be everything he is. For the countless sacrifices she has and continues to make and the obstacles she endures to make sure he has every opportunity to continue on his path that we all could learn from as parents. This is also your payoff Jessie, everything that boy is, is ALL because of you! I am so proud to be your friend! I love you both so much!"
Editor's note: This article was originally published on March 20, 2024. It has since been updated.
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Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.