A TikTok user’s fundraising campaign raised almost $180,000. This will help an elderly Walmart employee pay off her mortgage and retire.
Devan Bonagura posted a 15-second video on TikTok of an elderly woman sitting alone in the Walmart break room. She was dressed in a vest and a Walmart nametag.
“Life shouldn’t be that difficult. The caption on Devan’s TikTok video reads, “I feel bad. The poignant video has been viewed by over 24.1 million people on the popular social networking platform.
Devan had no idea how much attention the video would receive right away. In order to assist the woman, several of them even urged him to start a GoFundMe page.
His GoFundMe for her was promptly started, much to the delight of his fans. Let’s assist Nola in retiring, reads the description. The fact that Nola works at Walmart should suffice. Come together and provide a hand.
It raised more than $100,000 in only one day. Devan met Nola for the account transfer and released a video of their meeting on November 5.
He told her, “They observed that you’re a really hard worker, obviously. We wanted to give you the $110,000 that has been raised for you since we are all so proud of you.
Although Nola stated she would accept it, she still needed to work to earn an additional $60,000 to pay off her mortgage. She acknowledged that the money would be helpful and that she wouldn’t need to save for her mortgage for as long.
Given that Walmart gives its employees an hourly wage of $19, it would probably take Nola a few more years to earn the extra $60,000 from the company.
Nola stated that she planned to retire as soon as she could pay off her mortgage. “The house is what keeps me going to work,” she explained. Nonetheless, she was adamant about working hard so she could retire and spend the rest of her days without worrying about money. She was really grateful to everyone who made an effort to alleviate her challenges.
Unfortunately, Walmart recognized Devan’s act of kindness because of the aforementioned video, which resulted in Walmart receiving a lot of backlash.
“They’re receiving a lot of blowbacks,” he claimed in one of his films, “so they told me I needed to erase the video, delete the fundraising page, and give back all the money to the individuals who donated it or they’re going to call the cops.”
I told them to do whatever they needed to do because I would find a way to get this money to this woman, he continued. Devan also informed his audience that one of his employees had been placed on paid leave.
Devan’s GoFundMe campaign had received more than $172,000 as of November 10, which Nola might ideally use to retire and pay off her mortgage.
After sharing Nola’s video, Devan gained 132k followers, and despite challenges and hostility from some of his followers, he continued to help others and organize fundraising activities, which he also published on social media. One of them entailed tipping a waitress $500 for a cup of water.
Devan just uploaded a video of his conversation with Nola to keep the public up to date on her current situation. She reacted positively to the query about how she was doing and thanked Devan for his aid.
Additionally, Nola said that after 20 years of employment at Walmart, she will officially retire on January 1st. She also thanked everyone on TikTok who contributed to the fundraising efforts, shared the word, and made donations.
She then sent Devan a heartfelt message with best wishes. I simply want to ensure that you perform well and achieve your goals, and I sincerely hope that this is the case.