Looking for someone to meet on dating websites can offer some mixed results when it comes to finding a date. There's an equal chance of finding a Joe Manganiello look-a-like who owns all of the world's supply of diamonds and an unemployed horse euthanizer with a perpetual gas problem.
Jessica Sotero, a single mother of two from Irving who works as an administrative assistant in Dallas, signed up for a dating website called WhatsYourPrice.com and found much more than a future boyfriend or husband. She also found a wave of generosity when her family needed it most.
"I've been very blessed," she says.
"I've been very blessed." – Jessica Sotero
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Sotero's 13-year-old son, Isaiah, needed some emergency knee surgery back in May after suffering a serious injury while playing football. Because he didn't have insurance, she was facing more than $9,000 in hospital bills. Some of the people she met on the dating website heard about her son's accident and offered to help cover the bills and do even more for her family.
Sotero says she set up an account on WhatsYourPrice.com, a dating website where men and women compete in auctions to set up dates with people they want to meet, three or four months before her son's accident "because I don't go out much and guys I did go out with were kind of meh."
Her son was also playing in an Ironman football league where players compete on both the offensive and defensive line at the time.
"During one of the tackles he made, he tripped and fractured his left kneecap," Sotero says. "He needed surgery and basically, they just reconstructed his knee."
Sotero says she had some dates lined up on the dating website, but she had to reschedule them to help take care of her son.
"They asked why, of
The men she was planning to meet opened their wallets offering to help pay for her bills and anything else she and her son might need, like groceries and school supplies, as he recuperated from his surgery.
"At first, it was really awkward to me because I didn't even ask family members for help," Sotero says. "So for them to offer was very different for me because I've never had anyone offer to help me
So far, Sotero says she's received more than $13,000 in donations and gifts and she was not only able to cover the bills for her son's surgery, but she also had enough to help her children prepare for the new school year.
"I don't ask for anything, so it was really nice for them to help me," Sotero says. "The men I have met on there have been really generous. One of the guys I see often, we didn't have time to meet up, but he said to check my cash app because he sent some money to my son for stuff for school. That was really nice of him because I didn't ask at all."
