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Mr. Beast attracts attention with employment of recent Rose alumnus Javier Limon

SUN.| 10-25-20 | FEATURES

     With over 45.1 million subscribers on YouTube, twenty-two year old Jimmy Donaldson, commonly known as “MrBeast,” is a YouTube celebrity recognized across the nation. This online name is especially known by many in our community since Donaldson lives in Greenville, NC, and films many of his viral videos in the town. One of Donaldson’s closest friends who often appears in his videos, Chandler Hallow, graduated from Rose. Additionally, connections through friends and associates have even resulted in the employment of Javier Limon, a former Rose student, to the MrBeast crew.

     Donaldson was born in Kansas but grew up in Greenville, graduating from Greenville Christian Academy in 2016. He began making YouTube videos at thirteen years old, with little success until his first viral video in 2017 with over 20 million views in which he counted to 100,000. According to Business Insider, by December of 2018, MrBeast was titled “YouTube’s Biggest Philanthropist” because of the extensive donations that he has made to various organizations in many of his videos. He was also one of the most viewed YouTubers in 2019.

     ECU freshman and Rose alumni Javier Limon started working for MrBeast in May of 2020 just after graduating from Rose. He got the opportunity of starting to work for the channel through connections that he had with employees and crew members. 

     “Mostly with people here, the way you work is that you know someone in the company and if they vouch for you to someone higher up, [then they] will call you in [to] come to

Cycle 4 photo.jpg- Kinsley Tate White.JP

work," Limon said.

Limon’s job mainly involves putting sets together, helping with backgrounds and backdrops, cleaning the studio, making sure that everything is organized for future videos, and helping with some of the larger projects.

     “[We do] just a lot of the big tasks,” Limon said. “The most recent one we had was the signing shirts where Jimmy signed around 60,000 shirts so we were there in the background ironing them, straightening them for him to be ready to sign them all,” Limon said.

     Limon is currently double majoring in biology and political science with plans of going to medical school, but he is intending on staying with his job as long as he can, which will more than likely be through college. However, he feels his balance between school and work has not been extremely difficult to maintain, mainly because of the flexibility in his working schedule.

     “It's quite a time commitment, and we usually have long shifts; I’ve pulled several twelve-hour shifts in a row before, but they're really good about letting you balance it with school,” Limon said. “They let us sort of be flexible with our schedules so really you only take the long shifts if you really want to, but you can always leave early too if you need to.”

     Limon’s position often allows him to work directly with the star, especially on days that filming for videos takes place. His job has also introduced him to new connections that are beneficial in any of his intended future career plans. 

     Working hand-in-hand with Donaldson and other well-known crew members has given Limon an extensive inside perspective. Being a well-known celebrity can have its pros and cons, mainly in the fact that personal attributes are often assumed or made up. Because of this, it is important to know what it is true about a celebrity’s personality and what is not. Limon assures that both Donaldson and his childhood friends that work for him and often appear in his videos are just as great of people off camera as they are on camera.

     “Jimmy… [is a] really cool guy... if you just go up to him and talk to him he's just a normal dude- so are all the other ones: Chris, Carl, Chandler, Tyler…” Limon said. “They're all really cool guys both on and off camera, and they're really super easy to talk to; they’re a fun time to be around.”

     As Donaldson’s popularity continues to grow, ties to the star and to his background will likely open up opportunities for many Greenville residents, just as it did for Limon. And, even though not everyone is given that chance, it is still exciting enough for most to know that a philanthropoligical celebrity is living right in their backyards.

     “Subscribe to MrBeast and watch his videos,” Limon said. “That keeps us funded so we're able to do cool stuff.” 

     Or, as Mr. Beast often says, “Subscribe or I will take all your cookies.”

     

Picture contributed by Javier Limon

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