The Sweet Story of Why a Man Anonymously Donated $125 Million to Complete Strangers

What would you do if a stranger gave you $125 million out of nowhere? That's the subject of a new podcast episode in a series by KQED called The Leap. The series is "about what it takes to start out one place and end up somewhere — or someone — else." The Northern California broadcast company elaborates on the name, saying, "Leaps go forward, they go backward, they trigger other leaps . . . maybe ones that person may never have asked for."

And in this new episode, the inspirational series highlights a huge leap that one man certainly never asked for: an anonymous donation of $125 million. You see, this surprise donation was given to San Francisco's Lighthouse for the Blind, a nonprofit that serves the blind and visually impaired by giving people a safe place of community when they feel they have nowhere to turn. Bryan Bashin, pictured above, heads the organization and received this incredible gift — what Bashin believes may be the largest private gift ever given to a blindness organization — from a Seattle businessman named Donald Sirkin, whom he later discovered was a closeted blind man. Sirkin was always too afraid to admit his blindness, a common mentality among the visually impaired, including Bashin, who "passed as sighted" for 18 years.

What makes the gift even more poignant is that when Bashin went to Seattle to seek out the donor, he learned that Sirkin had died alone, in his house. He died too afraid to be honest about his disability, and his donation will help other blind people in more ways than he could've imagined. As Bashin notes, "This is a chance to think big about the shame and stigma that still exist around blindness."

Podcasts are SO interesting. The audio files have become an amazing way for the general public to listen and learn about a wide range of topics, from economics to celebrities, all while passing the time at home or making the most out of their commutes. On the surface, this one is a story about a generous donation, but at its core, it's a story about being true to who you are and inspiring others to live with confidence.

You can listen to the full episode, along with others from the series, here.