A Boy Praises the Principal of His Brooklyn School, and a Fund-Raising Campaign Takes Off.

“I tell my scholars they matter,” said Nadia L. Lopez, the school’s founder and principal, who plans to pass out the red cards to the students and staff. “Now there’s this card they can walk away with. It makes my heart smile.”

The campaign for Mott Hall Bridges began in January after a chance encounter between one of its students and Brandon Stanton, a bond trader-turned-photographer who has been documenting people’s stories for his popular blog, Humans of New York, for nearly five years. Mr. Stanton had just hopped off the subway in Brownsville and was trawling for his next subject when he saw Vidal Chastanet, 13, walking home from a corner deli.

While taking Vidal’s picture, Mr. Stanton asked Vidal who inspired him. That person, Vidal replied, would be his principal, Ms. Lopez. Instead of suspending students for misbehaving, she talked to them about how they should lead by example for the next generation, he said.

“Ms. Lopez is like my second mom,” Vidal said later. “She takes care of us in school. She makes sure we do what we have to do.”

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