After a raucous week in Cancun for spring break, things were looking bleak for one Alabama junior who admittedly “went a little too hard.” Mild sunburn, nausea, and a stolen pair of Ray Bans were the least of 21-year-old Mackenzie Thompson’s worries when she returned to campus on Sunday evening.

That’s how Thompson described the feeling of checking her bank account balance for the first time in nearly six days. “It felt like I was trapped in like a nightmare or something…you know what I mean?”

But even the comfort and emotional support from 80+ of her best friends in the world wasn’t enough to quell the pain of knowing she only had “mid-three figures” left on her debit card. And with less than a month until the likes of DJ Snake and Diplo were set to take the stage on the opening day of Coachella, a pricey music and arts festival in Southern California, Mackenzie’s chances of joining the rest of her friend group in VIP looked awfully grim.

“I’ve had to settle for General Admission at festivals in the past. It’s taken a lot of strength and forgitude, but I’ve always been able to get through it,” explained Thompson who grew up in a neighborhood that’s “barely upper middle class.”

“I’m definitely used to battling adversary, but Coachella is way different, you know? It’s a completely different kind of pain this time.”

While Mackenzie struggled to cope with the heartbreaking reality of being excluded from VIP perks for the biggest and most influential event of the year, her best friends made it a mission to save her from that dreadful fate. Their compassion and the unwavering loyalty that comes with sisterhood ended up being the driving force behind one of the most uplifting GoFundMe stories of the year.

“We really didn’t wanna be forced to ditch Kenz for VIP again like last summer at Lolla. We honestly felt so bad afterwards, and the thought of having to do that to her again made us really symphonize with her,” said Rachel Atkinson, the senior Marketing major who spearheaded the GoFundMe campaign. “We had no idea how we were going to help her afford VIP passes. So we put our heads together and eventually came up with the idea of raising money for her.”

On Monday morning, Rachel and dozens of her friends/sisters started working tirelessly on signing up for a GoFundMe account, verifying an email address, and creating a profile. And by 10:00 that night, the girls were finally able to get the campaign up and running. “We were all kinda hoping for the best but inspecting the worst,” Rachel admitted. “It was a last stitch effort, but we knew we had to try something, you know?”

The task may have seemed impossible to some, but the group’s hard work ended up paying off in a way that none of them could’ve ever expected. Thanks to a generous $1,000 donation from Gary Thompson, who is coincidentally Mackenzie’s father, the entire GoFundMe campaign goal was miraculously raised in about 10 minutes.

“It’s a dream come true,” Mackenzie exclaimed while fighting back tears of joy. “I can’t thank my friends and sisters enough for putting this all together for me and making this happen. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without them.”