College student walks nearly 20 miles to first day of work, boss rewards him with car
Walter Carr, a 20-year-old college student from Alabama, had encountered a major problem after his Nissan Altima broke down the night before his first day of work.
During an interview with FOX Business’ Charles Payne, Carr relived his experience walking to work and how he was awarded for his efforts.
“My car went down and I didn’t have a ride. I had to find an alternative route to get to work so I decided to walk,” he said.
Carr’s GPS estimated that it would take him seven hours to arrive from his home in Homewood, Alabama, to Bellhops, a moving company in the town of Pelham.
After walking roughly 14 miles, Carr was spotted by police, who heard his story and decided to give him a lift to the First Methodist Church.
Another police car came by to check on the young college student and drove him to the home of Jenny Hayden Lamey, where his first moving assignment was scheduled.
Carr said that after the police officer told the Lamey family his story, the Lameys offered him food and urged him to go rest before starting his work.
“I think we argued for about 5 minutes about me laying down and I was like I just want to go ahead and get the job done,” he said.
Overwhelmed after hearing Carr’s story, Mrs. Lamey decided to post his story online and went viral. Bellhops CEO Luke Marklin eventually caught wind of Carr’s story and decided to thank him by buying him a Ford Escape.
“When we woke up on Sunday and read the Post and heard about the story, [we were] just blown away, it’s the commitment, the resolve, these are things that are truly special. We felt nothing other than this is what we’re about and we got to show gratitude,” Marklin said.
In addition to posting the story, Lamey had also started a GoFundMe campaign to help raise money for Carr. Within one day, it raised close to $65,000.
Carr plans to donate some of the money that was raised to the Birmingham AERO Foundation.