Walter Carr, 20, a college student from Alabama got amazing gift right from the first day of work.
The night before the first day on the job, Carr’s 2003 Nissan Altima broke down. He then called his girlfriend and his other friends to try to get a ride, but nothing worked out. Carr checked his GPS and saw that without a car he would have to spend about 7 hours getting from his house in Homewood, Alabama, to the town of Pelham for his first day at Bellhops moving company.
Carr decided to walk.
Carr started his 20-mile trek sometime around midnight.
He said: “I wanted to be there before 8,”
“I wanted to beat the crew members there to let the company know how dedicated I am.”
Carr made it about 14 miles to Pelham when police officers stopped him on the side of the road around 4 a.m.
He said: “He was like, ‘Where are you going?’ and I was like, ‘It’s hard to believe, it’s going to sound real crazy, but I’m actually headed to work.'”
When hearing his story, the officers decided to take him to breakfast at Whataburger and made sure that he got something for lunch, too.
He said that the officers debated for a little while where to safely drop him off and eventually landed on First Methodist Church. The officers told they would send someone to check on him.
He started walking again after resting for a while. He had less than 4 miles to go when another officer pulled up to check on him.
Carr said: “He said, ‘Are you Walter Carr?’ and he was like, ‘Get in the car, I got you,'”
The officer dropped Carr off at the home of Jenny Hayden Lamey, who he was scheduled to help move that day. Carr shared that once the officer told Lamey and her husband Chris his story, they insisted he rest for a while.
He said: “They were overwhelmed,”
“We argued about five minutes about me resting.”
After the moving job was done, because of being impressed by Carr’s determination, Lamey shared his story on Facebook.
She said while waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive, they started to chat, and Lamey learned many things about Carr. Accordingly, he and his mother moved to Birmingham after they lost their home in New Orleans during Katrina.
Lamey was toughed by Walter and his journey. She wrote: “He is humble and kind and cheerful and he had big dreams!”
Her post went viral online and caught the attention of Luke Marklin, who is the Bellhops CEO. Marklin said he started getting texts about Carr’s story and got his team together to figure how they could thank him.
Marklin said: “Just sitting there reading it, I was just blown away,”
“The more we learned, the more we realized Walter was just a special person.”
Marklin then met Carr to thank him and decided to gift him his personal Ford Escape, which made Carr surprised, to say the least.
Marklin said, laughing: “I think he was pretty happy,”
“His resolve to get through challenges is just something that legends are made of, really.”
Like Lamey, Marklin was impressed by Carr’s determination.
He said: “It was wonderful to get to know him. Walter is a person who has had adversity throughout his life,”
“I don’t think Walter … was ever going to let not having a car get him down.”
Lamey has since started a GoFundMe campaign to help raise money for Carr. It has raised nearly $8,500 in just one day. Carr said he’s incredibly grateful for all the feedback he’s gotten since the story went viral.
He said: “I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t think that 20-mile walk would mean anything to anybody.”
“I’m really thankful for it, the car, for everything.”
“That was the craziest long walk,”
“My body was like, ‘What was you thinking?’ I had to get the job done.”.
Source: USATODAY
