The walk to Polk Place from the depths of South Campus for a Monday morning 8 a.m. class can seem like a tiresome effort for the average first-year student. Most students’ mornings, however, are brightened just a little by a simple “good morning” or “have a nice day” from Joann Isom, a crossing guard on South Road.
“She is just a really nice person," said sophomore Alex Kim. "Every morning, whenever I just cross the road, she is always just very nice and smiling, and I always say thank you because I think she just fosters an environment where people want to say thank you to her because she is just so great."
Kim decided to dress up as Isom for Halloween this year after debuting a UNC-themed costume last year.
“My admiration of her made me want to be like, ‘Oh, this is what I want to be for Halloween,’” Kim said.
After seeing a post about Isom on the “Humans of UNC” Facebook page, junior Carlos Salas thought of the idea to set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money for her to visit her son in Arizona.
“I was looking at the post, and it had about 400 likes and people were commenting all sorts of nice things about Joann,” Salas said. “I thought that all of those 400 people could come together and do something cool for her, if we gave them the platform to do so.”
The fundraiser, that started in mid-October, raised more than $7,600, surpassing an original goal of $700. Salas said because of the quantity of donations received, he believes this will help her move into a nicer apartment in a better part of the city.
“I think that’s the bigger thing and better thing that came out of this,” he said. “Not only is she able to go see her son, but we’re actually able to help her and her quality of life that’s going to affect her for a lot longer than just a trip.”
Isom received the money raised by the community on Friday in the Student Union. She said she was nervous walking over because she didn’t know what to expect.
