TikToker Raises Thousands of Dollars for 90-Year-Old Veteran
By Movieguide® Contributor
A TikToker has helped raise over $380,000 for a 90-year-old veteran who was pawning his belongings to pay for his rent.
Jenelle Marie met Donald, an Air Force vet, in a pawn shop, where he was pawning his possessions to pay rent. She heard the store’s owner say he would not charge Donald interest, but “I wanted to do more, so me and my fiance started a GoFundMe,” she told Fox News.
@jenellemarie0212 @U.S Gold & Pawn @Fox News #actsofkindness #donaldtheveteran
On the GoFundMe page, Marie explained that, in addition to worries about rent, Donald was also struggling to take care of his wife, who was just diagnosed with dementia.
“He is the sweetest old man you could ever meet and loves his wife dearly,” she wrote on the fundraising page. “He takes care of her around the clock and his landlord is raising their rent and he is falling behind terribly with all of his bills. He’s deathly afraid he’s going to be displaced and that they are going to make his wife go to a home.”
The GoFundMe initially raised around $1,200, which Marie gave to Donald and filmed for a TikTok.
“You’re an angel in disguise, you really are,” he told Marie in the video. “I don’t know what to say, I really don’t know what to say.”
The money Marie gave him allowed him to keep the jewelry he was trying to pawn, as well as pay off his debt to his landlord.
The video quickly went viral, and donations started pouring in. The GoFundMe has now raised over $380,000 for housing for Donald and his wife. Marie also explained that the fundraiser will remain open until she and Donald can meet with an attorney who can help them put the money in an account for Donald.
In an update posted to the GoFundMe page, Marie wrote about the moment she told Donald about the money that had been raised for him and his wife.
She wrote, “It was a truly beautiful and emotional moment something that I will never forget. He graciously said he could never ever thank us and the people who donated enough.. He said he didn’t deserve it. He was ‘just an ordinary man’, but we explained to him that he’s so much more than that!”
“The outpouring of love that people can show to complete strangers like Donald; it’s really beautiful,” Marie said in an interview with Fox News.
