The initiative raised more than 140,000 dollars, which allowed Warren Marrion to settle the loan he had contracted to pay for his house and thus retire, reports the BBC.
A beautiful gift after a lifetime of hard work. At 82, Warren Marrion has finally been able to retire when he was still a full-time cashier in a supermarket of the American giant Walmart, in the state of Maryland. He was still working to pay off his house loan because he wouldn’t have enough of his retirement to do so, but a fundraiser promoted on the TikTok social network raised more than $100,000 in his favour, allowing him to quit his job for good. , explains the BBC.
“I’m a bird out of its cage,” he shared to local Fox 5 TV station.
It was during a checkout in mid-December that Cory McCarty, an entrepreneur from the region, was surprised to see him still working at his age and asked him about his situation while filming him.
Specializing in disinsection, the 60-year-old also has a very popular Tiktok account (277,000 subscribers) under the name of his company, “Bug Boys” on which he shares videos taken during his extermination operations and which regularly go viral, accumulating sometimes several hundred thousand views.
Shocked by the situation of Warrion Marrion, nicknamed “Butch”, the name he wears on his badge, he decides to ask his subscribers if they would be interested in financing a kitty to help him. The video, posted on December 16, quickly went viral and now has more than 3.3 million views. He then relays the kitty extensively on his TikTok account.
“I was amazed to see this elderly man continue to toil. Working 8 to 9 hours a day. (…) I wanted to help this Navy veteran live out the rest of his years by traveling to see his children in Florida (…) and do the things he would like to do”, then writes Cory McCarty in the description of the kitty.
Goal achieved in two days
The success is immediate. Two days later, the goal of 100,000 dollars is reached and the prize pool continues to grow. Cory McCarty withdraws the $108,682 then available and gives it to Warren Marrion in the form of a check.
“Thank you guys…it’s crazy, it’s a Christmas miracle! Now that I only have my bills to pay, I’ll have time to sit by the river and have a few drinks. cold beers”, shares the octogenarian.
Not yet closed by Rory McCarty, the prize pool continues to grow as more than 5,700 people participated for amounts of up to $3,000. So much so that it is about to pass the bar of 140,000 dollars: a bonus that the head of the initiative intends to continue to pay to Warren Marrion.
“I’m so glad it happened to him and I got to be a part of it,” Rory McCarty shares today.
The entrepreneur explains that it was when he discovered another pot for an 82-year-old Walmart employee that he decided to launch the one intended for Warren Marrion. The two men are currently invited on many television sets to tell their story and “Butch” plans to fly to Florida soon.
Original article published on BFMTV.com
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