Peter Shankman travels for a living, giving speeches around the country.
The last thing he wants to do in his free time is travel from his home in New
York.
So for the fifth year in a row, Shankman donated hundreds of thousands of
miles to people in need — those who can’t afford to buy a flight, but want to
be with sick loved ones during the holidays, or a parent who wants to see a
faraway child.
Shankman posts his contest on the social media site Imgur, and other
Imgur users vote for winners of Shankman’s miles. After the initial year of
the giveaway, other travelers started seeing Shankman’s posts on Imgur
and began donating their miles to his contest, multiplying the gift.
“I can’t think of a better way to use [frequent flier] miles,” said Shankman.
In all, five families were reunited for Christmas using a total of 300,000
miles. About 200,000 are donated by Shankman, and the rest by others
who were touched by his idea and wanted to donate as well.
“I’m happy they want to help. There are a lot of people who can’t afford to
buy these tickets on their own,” he said.

One of the winners of his contest this year was Sarah Latham, 33, who had
been weighing a painful dilemma: Her grandfather is dying from cancer
and lives 1,593 miles from her home in Texas. She knew that if she flew to
New York to see him at Christmas, her family would go into debt to pay for
the flight. If she skipped it, she might never see him again.

If you would like to donate miles for next year you can visit the Imgur site here!