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Alabama college student walks almost 20 miles overnight to first day of work; CEO gives him his car
N'DEA YANCEY-BRAGG | USA TODAY
Updated 33 minutes ago
What started as every employee's worst nightmare had a pretty happy ending for Walter Carr, 20, a college student from Alabama.
The night before Carr's first day on the job, his 2003 Nissan Altima broke down.
He called his friends and his girlfriend to try to get a ride, but nothing worked out. He checked his GPS and saw that without a car it would take him about 7 hours to get from his house in Homewood, Alabama, to the town of Pelham for his first day at Bellhops moving company.
Bellhops CEO Luke Marklin gifted employee Walter Carr
Bellhops CEO Luke Marklin gifted employee Walter Carr his very own Ford Esape after Carr's car broke down.
KYLE MILLER/GREG CORRADINO
He decided to walk.
Carr started his 20-mile trek sometime around midnight.
"I wanted to be there before 8," he said. "I wanted to beat the crew members there to let the company know how dedicated I am."
He made it about 14 miles to Pelham when police officers stopped him on the side of the road around 4 a.m.
"He was like, 'Where are you going?' and I was like, 'It’s hard to believe, it’s going to sound real crazy, but I’m actually headed to work.'" Carr said.
When they heard his story, the officers decided to take him to breakfast at Whataburger and made sure he got something for lunch, too.
Carr said the officers debated for a little while where they could safely drop him off and eventually landed on First Methodist Church. The officers said they would send someone to check on him.
Carr rested for a while before he started walking again. He had less than 4 miles to go when another officer pulled up to check on him.
"He said, 'Are you Walter Carr?' and he was like, 'Get in the car, I got you,'" Carr said.
The officer dropped him off at the home of Jenny Hayden Lamey, who Carr was scheduled to help move that day. Carr said once the officer told Lamey and her husband Chris his story, they insisted he rest for a while.
"They were overwhelmed," he said. "We argued about five minutes about me resting."
After the moving job was done, Lamey, impressed by Carr's determination, shared his story on Facebook.
She said while waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive, they started to chat, and Lamey learned that Carr is a Marine. She said he and his mother moved to Birmingham after losing their home in New Orleans during Katrina.
"I just can’t tell you how touched I was by Walter and his journey," she wrote. "He is humble and kind and cheerful and he had big dreams!"
Lamey's post went viral and caught the attention of Luke Marklin, the Bellhops CEO, on Sunday morning. Marklin said he started getting texts about Carr's story and got his team together to figure how they could thank him.
"Just sitting there reading it, I was just blown away," Marklin said. "The more we learned, the more we realized Walter was just a special person."
Marklin met Carr on Monday to thank him and decided to gift him his personal Ford Escape. Carr was surprised, to say the least.
"I think he was pretty happy," Marklin said, laughing. "His resolve to get through challenges is just something that legends are made of, really."
Like Lamey, Marklin said he was impressed by Carr's determination.
"It was wonderful to get to know him. Walter is a person who has had adversity throughout his life," he said. "I don't think Walter ... was ever going to let not having a car get him down."
After hearing that Walter Carr walked nearly 20 miles
After hearing that Walter Carr walked nearly 20 miles to work overnight, Bellhops CEO Luke Marklin gifted him his personal Ford Escape.
KYLE MILLER/GREG CORRADINO
Lamey has since started a GoFundMe campaign to help raise money for Carr. It has raised nearly $8,500 in just one day, far exceeding the $2,000 goal.
Carr said he's incredibly grateful for all the feedback he's gotten since the story went viral.
"I couldn't believe it. I didn’t think that 20-mile walk would mean anything to anybody." he said. "I’m really thankful for it, the car, for everything."
He's also pretty sore.
"That was the craziest long walk," Carr said. "My body was like, 'What was you thinking?' I had to get the job done."
Last edited by DJP; 07-17-2018 at 10:17 PM.
God bless that man.
Yep, man has a damn good work ethic, wish him the best.
Yeah, but do you consider a dog to be a filthy animal? I wouldn't go so far as to call a dog filthy but they're definitely dirty. But, a dog's got personality. Personality goes a long way.
You might take out a dozen before they drag you from your home and skull fuck you to death. Marsh Chicken 6/21/2013
Solid.
Outstanding!
"hunting should be a challenge and a passion not a way of making a living or a road to fame"
Rubberhead
Great story, but skip the comments.
Amazing story, wish him the best
World needs more kids like him. I saw that on the news tonight.
I was just as amazed to learn the CEO owned and drove a Ford Escape.
Miner's Daughter's Coal Train 'Rosco'
"The only human quality he lacks is speech" -Alfred Brehm
Wish we had more like him.
I have noticed that as well.
I try not to watch the news too much in general bc all it does is make me mad how dumbed down it is. The local charleston news has a part of each broadcast where they actually put up comments from their stations twitter and Facebook pages on the news broadcasts. It just encourages people to think they are qualified to comment and have an opinion on everything.
Miner's Daughter's Coal Train 'Rosco'
"The only human quality he lacks is speech" -Alfred Brehm
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