It all started when fourteen-year
old Hannah Salwen had a “eureka” moment. Seeing a homeless
man in her neighborhood at the precise second a glistening
Mercedes coupe pulled up, she said “You know, Dad, if that
man had a less nice car, that man there could have a
meal.”
Until that day, the Salwens had been
caught up like so many of us in the classic American
dream—providing a good life for their children, accumulating
more and more stuff, doing their part but not really feeling
it. So when Hannah was stopped in her tracks by this glaring
disparity, her parents knew they had to act on her urge to
do something. As a family, they made the extraordinary
decision to sell their Atlanta mansion, downsize to a house
half its size, and give half of the sale price to a worthy
charity. What began as an outlandish scheme became a
remarkable journey that transported them across the globe
and well out of their comfort zone. In the end they learned
that they had the power to change a little corner of the
world—and they found themselves changing, too.