A TikTok user’s fundraising effort has garnered over $180,000. This is to help an elderly worker from Walmart pay her mortgage and retire.
Devan Bonagura posted a 15-second video on TikTok in which an elderly woman was sitting alone in the Walmart break room. She was wearing a Walmart uniform with a nametag and a vest.
“Life shouldn’t be this hard. I feel bad,” says the caption in Devan’s TikTok video. The heartwarming video has been viewed over 24.1 million times on the famous social media app.
Devan did not expect that the video would instantly gain a lot of attention. Some of them even encouraged him to set up a GoFund Me so they could help the elderly worker.
His viewers were not disappointed as he soon launched a GoFundMe for her. The description says, “Let’s help Nola retire. Nola works at Walmart and that says enough. Let’s all come together and help.”
In just 24 hours, it had raised more than $100,000. On November 5, Devan posted a video where he met Nola for the account transfer.
“They saw that you’re a very hard worker, obviously,” he told the woman. “We are all super proud of you, and we wanted to offer you the $110,000 that has been raised for you.”
The elderly worker said she would accept it but she still had to work to get $60,000 more to pay off her house. She agreed that the money would help and it wouldn’t take her that long anymore to save for her mortgage.
Walmart pays their workers $19 per hour on average so it would likely take Nola a few more years to get the additional $60,000.
Nola also said that she would retire once she is able to pay her mortgage. “That’s what’s holding me at work – the house,” she said. Nonetheless, she was determined to work hard so she can retire and enjoy the rest of her life without financial liabilities. She was very thankful for all the people who helped ease her burdens.
Sadly, Devan’s act of kindness didn’t go unnoticed by Walmart, which received a lot of criticism because of the said video.
“They’re getting a lot of backlash, so they told me I need to delete the video and delete the fundraising page and return all the money to the people that donated it or they’re going to get the cops involved,” he said in one of his videos.
“So, I told them to do what you have to do because I’m getting this money to this woman one way or another,” he added. Devan also told his viewers that his employee suspended him with pay.
After posting Nola’s video, Devan gained 132k followers and despite all the challenges and criticism from some of his viewers, he did not stop helping people and doing fundraising efforts which he also posted on social media. One of these was tipping a waitress $500 for a cup of water.
Devan recently posted a video of his conversation with Nola to give the viewers an update on the woman’s current situation. When asked how she was doing, she said she was feeling good and was very thankful for Devan’s help.
She is going to completely retire on the first of the year after she helps them out for the holidays. She has been working at Walmart for 20 years and will surely miss her co-workers.
Nola also thanked all the people on TikTok who helped with the fundraising, spread the news, and donated. The help from people kept pouring but Nola’s family decided to close the GoFundMe for her when it reached $186, 318.
Finally, she left a wonderful message for Devan and wished him well. “I just want to make sure that you do good and you get what you want and I’m hoping it works that way.”
Here’s a quick video of Nola while she’s on break at Walmart:
@dbon973_ :/ I feel bad. #fyp #blowthisup #sad #walmart ♬ Jocelyn Flores – XXXTENTACION
