Sunday, February 12, 2017

This One Viral Picture Started A GoFundMe That Changed An Old Man's Life

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Growing up, there was a conspiracy the ice cream man in my neighborhood, a menacing Greek man with a bald head and a mustache, would put his cigarette ashes in the ice cream of the misbehaving children that'd fire hockey pucks at his truck. For whatever reason, this conspiracy never stopped us from buying ice cream from him.

Thankfully, this story has nothing to do with rogue ice cream men. In fact, it's the exact opposite. This is one of those feel-good stories that make you want to help an old lady across the street or buy a homeless person a sandwich. 

I'm not asking you to do any of those things, even though they'd be nice gestures. SHARE this article and spread some of them good feels to your friends online.

Sometimes, online funding campaigns can be, well, ridiculous.

Take this GoFundMe to help Kanye get out of debt. Yes, it exists. Visit the link at the bottom of the picture if you don't believe me. I saw another one to help a dude buy "hella hats because I'm going bald." I guess shaving wasn't an option.

But hey, it's the internet. We should accept this stuff as normal by now.

Other times, online funding campaigns can, well, blow us away.

This is one of those blow us away kind of stories. Thank God for that. 

Meet 89-year-old Fidencio Sanchez, longtime resident of Chicago's Little Village and maybe the hardest working senior citizen in the Windy City. Sanchez sells popsicles for a living. You may be thinking, "you can make a living selling popsicles?" To which I'd reply, "Name me one person that doesn't like popsicles. Of course you can't." I don't actually know the economics of popsicle-selling, but Sanchez has been doing it for a long time. Sanchez, an orphan, has been supporting himself from the age of 13.

And as if Sanchez's journey hadn't been without enough hardships, his daughter recently passed away.

"When she died I felt so much pain," he told CNN, fighting back tears. "I thought, 'What am I going to do now?'"

His daughter was responsible for cooking meals for he and his wife, Eladia. When she passed and Eladia was no longer able to work, Sanchez was truly in a desperate time.

"I feel my body is starting to give up on me," he said. "At some point, it's not going to have the capacity that it used to. But I don't want to stop working."

Enter Joel Cervantes Macias (far left, pictured below), the answer to Sanchez's prayers...

Joel Cervantes Macias is the man who started Sanchez's GoFundMe. This was his original message:

"As I was driving down 26th St. in the Little Village area in Chicago where I was born and raised. I saw this elderly man struggling to push is paleta cart (popsicle cart). It broke my heart seeing this man that should be enjoying retirement still working at this age. I had to pull over and took this picture. I then bought 20 paletas and gave him a $50 and said may God bless him and drove away. I posted this picture on Facebook and since then I've gotten a huge response. That's when Joe Loera came up with a great idea to start this campaign. Mr. Fedencio Sanchez and his wife recently lost their only daughter and are still heartbroken about the situation. His elderly wife was selling paletas also to help pay bills, but she fell ill and can't work anymore. We're trying to raise money to help him with whatever we can. Anything helps. Let's all pitch in and help make life a little easier and brighten both of their days."

Macias: "I think the picture pulled at a lot of heartstrings..." 

Major publications across the world have picked up on this story, which has helped bring the money raised to over $320,000. And, as is the case with fundraising campaigns this big, questions about fraud have been answered with a refreshing honesty by Sanchez, who hasn't shied away from people's concerns, answering them head-on via Facebook: 


"People are asking for proof that he's getting the money and it's only fair for all of you that have been so kind and donated. I can guarantee you that I am not a fraud. I own my own business El Rio Grande Mexican restaurant that is located at 524 W. Main St. Stoughton, WI 53589. My parents still live on Harding and 28th where they have lived for the past 35 years. You can friend me at Joel Cervantes Macias where I plan to go live so you can see that Mr. Sanchez receives his well-deserved money. I take no offense in wanting proof. I totally understand."

Fidencio made between $50 and $60 a day selling popsicles.

At that rate, it'd take him about 5,333 days of work (or 14.6 years) to make what his GoFundMe made him in just four days. There's some perspective.

Twitter was alight with support.

And normally I'm not one for the sappy stuff, but anything beats incessant election news in my social media feeds, so this was nice.

"I'm very grateful and very happy...and I'll stop working soon." 

I couldn't imagine what it'd be like to support yourself from such a young age, immigrate to a new country, work for so little, for so long, and then have this happen to you. His life has been nothing but hard work and now, even if he chooses to continue working, it won't be because he needs to, it'll be because he wants to.

A miracle?

Gilberto Bahena, Sanchez's pastor at his neighborhood church, calls the outpouring of financial support — from more than 9,000 people — a miracle.

"It's for sure an answer to their prayers," Bahena said. "This man has really been faithful to the Lord. This man has a good heart."

The story gets better. Click through to see what Fidencio Sanchez is doing with all the money raised for him.

Despite their struggles and losing their daughter, the Sanchez's have kept high spirits.

Eladia said, pointing to a group of people watching them get interviewed, "Now we see that we have many sons and grandsons."

And just when you thought this story couldn't get any better...

...you find out that Sanchez plans on giving a lot of the money raised for him away. In an interview with Univision, Sanchez told reporters that he plans to use the money to help others. “I’m going to give part of it to the church here, part of it to the church in my native land, some of it will go to my grandchildren, and certain people that I see have a need.”

"He says he wants to die walking."

Blanca Gutierrez owns the popsicle business that employs Sanchez and she has nothing but praise for the 89-year-old. She calls Sanchez one of the hardest workers she knows and that even in Chicago's notoriously cold winters, he can be found working, which is why she doesn't have the heart to tell him to stop.

"I didn't want to tell him that I wasn't going to give him a cart (of popsicles) because I know he would feel sad," she told CNN. "He says he wants to die walking."

They don't make 'em like Fidencio Sanchez anymore.

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Author: verified_user

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