Walter Carr is an amazing man. After his car broke down recently, he had no way getting to his job other than his own two legs. So that’s what he used. He would leave his home around midnight to be able to get to his moving company job by 8 AM.
Police happened to find him one morning though, around 4 AM. They listened to his story and that’s where we find our first Good Samaritans. They took him to get some breakfast and coffee. They then dropped him off at his first moving stop.
Proud to have encountered this young man. He certainly made an impact on us!#PelhamPD #belikewalter pic.twitter.com/d0zz0PMvnv
— Pelham Police Dept (@PelhamPoliceAL) July 16, 2018
They dropped Walter off at Jenny Lamey’s home which was his first job of the morning. She asked him if he wanted to rest but he began working right away without complaining. She learned about Walter’s story and was moved to help. He had originally been from New Orleans after Hurrican Katrina had destroyed his childhood home, and she didn’t want all this bad stuff to keep following him.
She wrote on Facebook:
“Yesterday was a long day. But a good day. Chris and I woke up around 5:45am to get everything staged and ready for the movers. Around 6:30am the doorbell rang. It was a police officer. He proceeded to tell us that he had picked up “this nice kid” in Pelham early this morning. “The nice kid”, Walter, said that he was supposed to help us with our move today. It was his first day on the job with this moving company (Bellhops) and he was “training” today.
The officer proceeded to tell us that the previous evening Walter’s car broke down and he didn’t know how he was going to get to work. So he left Homewood at MIDNIGHT and started WALKING to Pelham on 280. He WALKED ALL NIGHT to get from Homewood to Pelham. Because he needed to get to work. For those reading this that are not local, that’s over 20 Miles.”
She continued to say he was the most humble person she had met. She learned that he was a marine, but didn’t get to continue the conversation because the rest of the crew got there. They all worked fast and without complaints, which in the moving business is hard to find.
Her Facebook post continued to say:
“Walter and I emerged from the house and one of the crew, Shawn, saw us and said to Walter “You must be one of the recruits…let me shake your hand. Thanks for showing up!” He extended his hand to shake Walter’s. He was in total appreciation to him for being there. I guess it may be common for a “recruit” as he referred to him as, to not show up leaving the rest of the crew without the extra man they were counting on. I just looked at Shawn and said, “you wouldn’t believe what he did to get here. Tell him Walter”. Walter said “I walked”. That was it. Humble. I asked him to share a little more and when he did, the crew was in awe of him too! I don’t know that Walter would have shared if I hadn’t asked him to.”
This deserves 1000 retweets! Read this amazing story about Walter, a new bellhop in Birmingham.
Major shoutout to the @PelhamPoliceAL officer who lended a helping hand. pic.twitter.com/eLgbAxg4uv
— Bellhops (@BellhopsMoving) July 15, 2018
Jenny was so blown away by Walter and his unselfish ways, that she started a GoFundMe. The goal was $2,000 but that was chump change compared to what amount it is at now! So far it has raised $44,000 and is still climbing!
Wouldn’t it be nice if that’s where the story ends, but don’t worry there’s more goodness for Walter!
The CEO of Bellhops, Luke Marklin, heard of the story and wanted to help. He drove his family car from Tennessee to Alabama to give him his own car. He said, “I am honestly blown away by him. Everything he did that day is exactly who we are – heart and grit.”
Walter spoke to AL.com saying:
“This was the first job in a long time to give me an opportunity to get hired. I wanted to show them I got the dedication. I said I’m going to get to this job one way or another.
I want people to know this – no matter what the challenge is, you can break through the challenge. Nothing is impossible unless you make it impossible. You can do anything you set your mind to.”
What an amazing young man! You can add to Walter’s GoFundMe here!