There was a surprise open to trading today at the New York Stock Exchange. Observers had expected the founders and CEO of Twitter to ring the opening bell, which is stock market tradition when a major corporation marks the first day that its stock becomes available to the public.
Instead, a young California girl named Vivienne Harr did the honors. Vivienne has raised more than $100,000 by selling lemonade, and she’s contributed the funds to groups that fight modern-day slavery, including Free the Slaves. Vivienne credits Twitter for much of her success.
Vivienne Harr rings today’s opening bell | NYSE photo
“Today I rang the bell for twitter’s IPO! It was a ring for hope and freedom!,” Vivienne tweeted this morning. “I hope the whole entire world heard it, because now you don’t have to be big or powerful to change the world, you can be just like me. Find your voice, make a stand!”
Today’s Business Insider reports that Vivienne was chosen from more than 200 million Twitter users because “Twitter’s executives wanted to show appreciation for the social network’s users.”
Congratulations to Vivienne! It’s an impressive recognition of truly remarkable achievement.
Vivienne isn’t done fighting slavery. Her family has launched the Make a Stand Lemon-aid bottling company, and they plan to share profits with FTS and other organizations in the future.
