credit – Karen SwensenA former news reporter recently organized a fundraiser so that a 90-year-old Air Force veteran, who had to work to pay his bills, could retire.
Coming upon him pushing carts in the parking lot of a Louisiana grocery store in humid 90°F weather, the reporter shot a video that inspired over $200,000 in donations.
Karen Swensen was a New Orleans news anchor, and would have no doubt presented some amazing stories in her career, but was nevertheless stunned when she saw 90-year-old Dillon McCormick pushing carts in the Metairie store parking lot.
A former Air Force member who served in Colorado and Greenland, McCormick told Swensen that he needed about $2,500 to make ends meet, but got only half of that from his Social Security checks, which is why he took the job.
Interviewing other shoppers in the parking lot, they told Swensen that he had been working there a long time and is always rounding up shopping carts. Two men said they sometimes stopped to help him, leaving Swensen moved and motivated to do something.
“He is a veteran of the United States Military. It's Memorial Day. It's hot. Mr. McCormick was born in 1933, making him a part of the Silent Generation. Please, America, let us be his voice. We can do this,” she wrote in the introduction of a GoFundMe with a target of $35,000.
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In just 24 hours, two hundred grand rolled in through private donations—she eventually had to cut the donation button off after it passed $233,000.
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“No longer will the 90-year-old veteran have to push shopping carts in triple-digit heat to put food on his table,” Swensen wrote in an update posted to the GoFundMe page. “Should he choose to remain working, it will be just that—his choice.”
“Tomorrow we will begin the process of transferring the funds. What a delightful day awaits for him!”
WATCH McCormick push his final carts…
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