After the rental price of his apartment was raised, the man was forced to return to work.
Surviving in this world seems more and more difficult. The prices of basic necessities increase and not everyone can afford them; causing many people to go hungry or homeless, for example. And for the elderly it can become more complicated since they do not have the same strength as before and sometimes they have to continue working at a very old age.
This is the terrible reality that Mr. James. An 80-year-old man who had to go back to work as a janitor at a school in order to pay the rent for his apartment. Mr. James had already retired; however, his pension would no longer be enough to keep his home because the cost of rent increased.
Luckily for the octogenarian, the students at his new job decided to do something nice for him. They started a fundraiser for mr. James could retire and not have to continue working. The student community did not hesitate to support and hundreds of thousands of dollars were quickly raised for James.
The event occurred at Callisburg High School , Texas, United States. According to Live 5 News , three seniors had this great idea. Banner Tidwell, Greyson Thurman and Marti Yousko noticed the 80-year-old janitor’s plight and felt they had to do something about it.
“It was so sad to see an 80-year-old have to do things that an 80-year-old shouldn’t have to do,” Banner Tidwell said.
So, the young people decided to make use of one of the most powerful tools today: social networks. Through TikTok , Greyson shared a video where the man is seen pushing a cart, doing his job. The images are accompanied by a text that introduces the man, explains his situation and asks for help. Also, Greyson wrote in the description that he and his friends hated seeing mr. James working because ” nobody his age should be cleaning up messes for a living .”
The clip reached more than 30,000 views and many people decided to support it. The youth created a GoFundMe campaign for Mr. James and managed to raise $10,000 in just the first 12 hours. The campaign continued until February 24, when mr. James asked for it to be closed as he had already raised a whopping $270,905 .
Most of the donations came from the students themselves. The school principal, Jason Hooper , said he was very proud of the student community and also excited to see that the janitor will be able to retire to rest.
