Good Samaritans Donate Car to a Man Who Walked 2 Hours Each Way to Work for a Decade

Good Samaritans donated a car to a 25-year-old man who has been walking four hours to and from work for 10 years. Stock Snap/Pixabay

A twenty-five-year-old man has been walking two hours to work and two hours from work for about 10 years until recently when someone stopped him on his walk.

Elijah, identified only by his given name, has been homeless on and off for about a decade and has been walking from his motel room in Jackson, Mississippi to his job in Richland.

“I walk from work every day. Two hours to work, two hours from work. And on top of that, I work eight and a half hours on my feet,” Elijah told WLBT.

“I’ve been doing this since I was 15 until I met my wife. And when that transportation went down, I went back to basics,” he said.

Until last week Elijah was walking to work, that’s a driver pulled over and offered him a ride in his car.

“It was an unexpected pickup. I was walking alongside of the road and he asked me one question—are you walking for your health or did I need a ride?” Elijah said.

He shared with the driver about his ordeals and the driver shared it with his friends. Together these friends were able to gather enough money to buy Elijah a car.

When the couple first saw the car, his wife Tabitha was overwhelmed. “We was like, stop lying. It was unbelievable. God has a way of putting you in the right place at the right time,” she said.

These good Samaritans didn’t want to stop there, they wanted to help Elijah and Tabitha find a permanent home.

A young man in Alabama in July 2018 had a similar story. He was left with no other option but to walk 20 miles on his first day to work, reported ABC News.

Walter Carr’s car broke down a day before his first day with the Bellhops moving company. Carr slept for four hours and left his home at Homewood at midnight to reach work on time the next day morning.

On his way to the office, he sat down because his legs were hurting. Officer Mark Knighten of Pelham Police Department, spotted him when he had 8 to 10 miles to go.

Knighten and two other officers took Carr for breakfast. “I didn’t want to defeat myself,” Carr shared with the police officers that he was determined to reach office.

When he was 5 years old, he and his mother lost their home to Hurricane Katrina. Carr was to receive his associate’s degree later that year.

Impressed by Carr’s attitude, Bellhops CEO, Luke Marklin gifted him a car. “Walter is incredible, and what he did is incredible,” Marklin told ABC News. “It’s everything our company stands for.”

Marklin said that Carr truly raised the bar.

How Much Are Americans Donating?

Americans gave $410 billion in 2017 to nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and other charities, according to the Giving USA 2018 study, reported The Conversation.

This was more than $20 billion more than what Americans gave in 2016.

The report, however, says that the number of Americans donating fell from 68.5 percent in 2002 to 55.5 percent in 2014.

Though the number of people donating has decreased, the Americans giving money gave more money than they did earlier. The families who donated in 2000, gave an average of $2,041 and it increased to $2,514 in 2014.