Man Donates 200,000 Miles To Strangers To Help Them During Holidays

The man who donates 200,000 miles to strangers is back! Each year, Peter Shankman donates his frequent flier miles to strangers to help those who want to be with their families, but can’t afford the plane tickets. He does this each holiday season, and one of the winners of this year’s tickets has now been revealed.

Shankman admittedly flies a lot, about 250,000-300,000 miles each year. To put this into perspective, the distance between the earth and the moon is about 250,000 miles. After traveling so much, he prefers to give away his frequent flier miles to those in need rather than use them himself to travel more.

Each year, Shankman hosts a sort of contest on the social media site Imgur. It is difficult for him alone to select the people he can donate the 200,000 miles to, so he lets the power of the internet to do it for him. From the hundreds of applicants, regular netizens upvote the most deserving candidates.

After seeing Shankman’s initiative, many people have joined in to help families during this holiday season. His contest began on Dec. 21 and will remain open till Monday the 26th. The contest is only open to people traveling within the U.S.

According to The Washington Post, this is the fifth year in a row that Shankman is donating his frequent flier miles. This time around, a total of five families will be reunited for Christmas. 300,000 miles are up for grabs, of which 200,000 miles have been donated by Shankman.

Shankman is a single father and an entrepreneur based in New York City. He travels across the world to deliver keynote speeches. He gives away some of his free miles to his parents and some to his office assistants, but still he has lots more to give away. He started giving to strangers after realizing just how many miles go unused each year.

According to a report by Sea Coast Online, one of the winners of this year’s content is Sarah Latham, 33. Latham’s grandfather has cancer, and he is living in New York City. Traveling 1,593 miles for Christmas would mean that her family would have to borrow money in order to pay for the plane ticket. Skipping it could mean that Latham may never see her grandfather again. Thanks to the man who is donating 200,000 miles to strangers, Latham will see her grandfather this holiday season.