Whoopi Goldberg (Archman8 Flickr Photostream/Creative Commons)

Whoopi Goldberg mentioned our friends at SplashLife, an organization that launches this fall, on Thursday’s episode of The View:

“A great young lady came around and I met her. Her name is Melissa Helmbrecht Martin. She was a young woman who was failing in school, just not interested in life, not doing anything and she met up with a mentor who said if you really want to see what’s going on in the world go see what’s happening with the homeless. [...]  She started something called SplashLife which is basically, you know how AARP can reach any person over fifty? Well SplashLife is meant to reach out to (Millennials) for anything that they may need.  It’s free.  It’s a website that will help kids through some of these periods ‘cause one of the things that they don’t have is that there’s not a community. You know, to talk to, to talk about it, just to unburden and what we saw when this teacher shot this piece was that kids are just…. they’re at the brink. … So what you can do: I’m encouraging everybody to go over to Splashlife.com and see what they’re doing, see what you can do because it doesn’t cost you anything. You don’t need money.”

Peter Samuelson and Melissa from SplashLife rang us on Wednesday in anticipation of Whoopi’s mention because they knew their servers couldn’t handle the traffic. We hustled to get all of the traffic to SplashLife.com redirected to TakePart.com. The result: We received 16 times the normal traffic during the hour it aired, and the volunteer match page for The Soloist, our upcoming feature film about homelessness, received 40 times the normal visitors that day. This exercise validated the notion that if you highlight the right issue for the right audience, and subsequently provide them audience with the tools to takepart, they will indeed do so.

You can text SPLASH to ACTION (226488) for more info on SplashLife. And to receive updates on SplashLife’s first initiative, text EDAR to ACTION (226488). For more information on EDAR, (Everyone Deserves a Roof) please visit our page devoted to the subject.

You can also sign up to test drive the beta version of the new TakePart Social Action Network. We are grateful for your feedback as we striving to continue matching individuals like yourself with the organizations that need your help.