ABC News March 9, 2017

Pregnant woman rewards man who offered his seat with a custom trophy

WATCH: Pregnant woman rewards man who offered his seat with a custom trophy
By JOI-MARIE MCKENZIE

One New York City woman was determined to reward the first man who offered her a seat on the subway. She just didn't realize it'd take her two pregnancies.

Yvonne Lin, who lives in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, spends about two hours on the subway each day commuting to her job. The pregnant product designer told ABC News she quickly noticed a trend during her first pregnancy more than two years ago.

"I quickly realized a lot of women were giving me seats ... the majority of the subway ride. The contrast was so jarring. No men were giving me seats," she said.

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Courtesy Yvonne Lin
Yvonne Lin, who is eight months pregnant, presented a custom trophy that read "#1 decent dude" to the first man, Ricky Barksdale, who offered her a seat throughout her pregnancy.

Lin, 38, decided to come up with what she described as an experiment to "instigate behavior change," and decided to reward the first man who gave up his seat on the subway with a card.

"But I never managed to do that because no guy gave up his seat for the first pregnancy," she said.

Now that Lin and her husband, Borisitin, are expecting a baby boy in May, Lin said she decided to up the reward by ordering a custom trophy from Amazon for less than $13. It read, "#1 Decent Dude First Man to Offer Subway Seat to Pregnant Woman Throughout Two Pregnancies."

After carrying the trophy in her backpack for eight months, Lin was finally able to give it to Harlem resident Ricky Barksdale on Feb. 23.

Courtesy Yvonne Lin
Yvonne Lin, who is eight months pregnant, presented a custom trophy that read "#1 decent dude" to the first man, Ricky Barksdale, who offered her a seat throughout her pregnancy.

Barksdale, 34, said when he was riding the subway he didn't realize Lin was pregnant initially because she was wearing all black. After about 10 or so minutes, he got up and told her, "Take my seat," he recalled to ABC News.

"She said, 'Hold on a second. I have a gift for you,'" he added. "I thought it was going to be a business card."

But when Lin gave the Army veteran an actual trophy, the father of two said he "chuckled."

Lin said she doesn't just want to remind commuters to be nice to pregnant women, but to people in general. "It's good to be a little more human," she added.

Barksdale continued, "Pay it forward. Just do the right thing without expecting anything in return."

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