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A homeless man asked a college student for some tea, and a deluge of kindness followed

The unlikely pair spent the day getting to know each other, and now thousands of strangers are invested in Unc's well-being.

Sanai Graden/GoFundMe

Neither Sanai Graden nor her "Unc" knew what their meeting in a parking lot would lead to.

Every once in a while, a story of two strangers turns into a shared connection that touches millions. This is one of them.

Sanai Graden is a 21-year-old college student living in Washington, D.C., who likes to vlog on TikTok while she does everyday things. As she was heading to the grocery store on a random day at the end of January 2024, she turned on her camera, and soon after, a man approached and asked her if she could help him get some hot tea.

Not money. Not even food. Just some simple, hot tea.

Graden told the man she was going to Trader Joe's and he could go along with her and they could stop at Starbucks. As they walked and chatted, Graden learned the man was homeless, had no family and was suffering from prostate cancer. He has just gotten insurance, but it wouldn't kick in for 45 days and he needed a prescription filled.

Over the next four to five hours, Graden got him some tea, helped him get his prescription filled so he could get some relief from his pain and put him up in a hotel room for the night. By the end of the day, she was calling him "Unc," and he was calling her his "angel."

She left him with some cash and her phone number and then posted this video:

@hustlanani

Please help me help him !

At the end, she said she wanted to start a GoFundMe for Unc (whose real name is Alonzo), and she did just that.

"I'm just a college student, there's only so much I can do," she shared in another TIkTok. "I did the best I could. But that man, he was literally suffering, and it broke my heart…He was so kind…I just wanted to help him."

Her initial video started going viral—it currently has over 20 million views—and people started donated to the GoFundMe. When it reached $12,000 in a matter of hours, she called her parents to tell them about it. They told her she was exactly the right person to be helping this man because she will make sure the money is used to get him what he needs.

@hustlanani

Replying to @The JasmynYvette Thank you so much eve

Little did she know that that $12,000 would soon rise to $20,000, and then to $50,000, then $100,000 and more. As of the writing of this article, two days after the GoFundMe went up, it has jumped the $300,000 mark.

At this point, so many people are invested in Unc's well-being. Upwards of 20,000 people have donated, and the number just keeps rising. As one commenter put it, "He's everyone's Unc now."

Graden went to tell him the good news the next morning when the GoFundMe was around $150,000, but when she arrived at the hotel, he had already checked out. She searched everywhere she thought he might be, even renting a car to cover more ground more quickly, but she wasn't able to find him.

Finally, she shared a brief voice message he left for her that started, "Hey, Niece! It's your uncle," and ended with "I love you!" but he neglected to tell her where he was. After she looked around some more, he called again and and told her he was at church. She told him to wait right there.

She found him in front of a church and invited him to go get something to eat. She said she wanted to talk to him in private, but he was waiting with his aunt and couldn't leave just yet. Finally, she was able to sit with him in her car and tell him about what thousands of people were doing to help him live comfortably and more easily manage his cancer.

She had to convince him the money was his, not theirs together. He also said he hadn't finished writing her a letter he'd started.

@hustlanani

I know you’ve all been waiting on his reaction. I just made it home. Please enjoy it. Thank you everyone for coming together. This would not have been possible without the endless support. This is just the beginning of something great. I’m enternally grateful. God did that !!!

The first thing Graden did was take Alonzo to Target to get him his own phone and some new clothes of his choosing. He even had a little laugh with Graden when she asked him if he wanted to get some floss, forgetting that he doesn't have any teeth.

This story is still developing and there are obviously a lot of complex details to work out as they get Alonzo settled with however much money the GoFundMe ultimately raises. No one wants Alonzo to lose his health benefits, and there are various financial as well as mental and emotional elements to consider as they move forward. But the power of the kindness of strangers to change someone's circumstances, starting with just one caring soul, is certainly worth celebrating.

Follow @hustlanani on TikTok for updates on Unc.


This article originally appeared on 2.13.24

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Help is on the way for a desperate mom who couldn't find size 23 shoes for her teenage son

Her son Eric Kilburn Jr. is a 6'10" freshman in high school.

via GoFundMe

A size 21 Nike shoe made for Tacko Fall.

A local reporter at Hometown Life shared a unique and heartfelt story on March 16 about a mother struggling to find shoes that fit her 14-year-old son. The story resonated with parents everywhere; now, her son is getting the help he desperately needs. It's a wonderful example of people helping a family that thought they had nowhere to turn.

When Eric Kilburn Jr. was born, his mother, Rebecca’s OBGYN, told her that he had the “biggest feet I’ve ever seen in my life. Do not go out and buy baby shoes because they’re not gonna fit,’” Rebecca told Today.com. Fourteen years later, it’s almost impossible to find shoes that fit the 6’10” freshman—he needs a size 23.

The teen's height doesn't stem from a gland issue; he comes from a family of tall people. Both his parents are over 6 feet tall.

Eric plays football for Goodrich High School in Goodrich, Michigan, but doesn’t wear cleats, which led to a sprained ankle. He also suffers from ingrown toenails that are so severe he’s had two nails on his biggest toes permanently removed.

Last year, the family was lucky enough to stumble upon five pairs of size 21 shoes at a Nike outlet store. It was discovered they were made especially for Tacko Fall, the NBA player with some of the most enormous feet in the game. To put things in perspective, Shaquille O’Neal wears a size 22.

However, Eric soon grew out of those as well. The family was left with one more option: have orthopedic shoes made for Eric at the cost of $1,500 with no guarantee he won’t quickly grow out of those as well.

After his mother’s heartfelt plea to Hometown Life, the family got much-needed help from multiple companies, including Under Armour and PUMA, who are sending representatives to Michigan to measure his feet for custom shoes.

CAT has reached out to make him a custom pair of boots. Eric hasn't had any boots to wear for the past five Michigan winters.

Kara Pattison started a GoFundMe campaign on behalf of the family to help them purchase custom shoes for “the rest of the time Eric has these feet.” It has raised nearly $20,000 for the family in just over a week.

“The success of this fundraiser is well beyond what was ever expected,” Pattison wrote on the site on March 18. “The Kilburns plan to open a bank account dedicated to Eric's future footwear and some specialized sports equipment. He can use this to get a helmet that fits for football along with pads. They will also look into a football and track jersey for him.”

The sense of relief felt by Rebecca, Eric and the rest of the Kilburn family must be incredible. It has to be frustrating to be unable to provide your child with something as basic as footwear.

“It’s been overwhelming,” Rebecca told Hometown Life. “I have been this puddle of emotions, all of them good…It’s the coolest thing to be able to say we did it! He has shoes! I am not usually a crier, but I have been in a constant state of happy tears…We are so grateful.”


This article originally appeared on 03.23.23

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Man shares epic story of accidentally donating $15K to charity and it blows up online

You can't make this stuff up.

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New fear: unlocked

Sometimes life plays out just like a sitcom.

This is certainly the case for a California resident named Michael who goes byu/lazybear90 on Reddit. On May 26, Michael detailed an epic donation-to-charity fail to the r/TIFU subreddit, and it’s almost too far-fetched to believe, and definitely too funny not to share.

So the story goes: Michael had just moved into a new three-unit apartment building in San Francisco with his wife. Their neighbor, nicknamed “Joe” for the story, was a 70-something year old retired veteran and devout Hindu priest.

Wanting to support his new neighbor, Michael generously agreed to donate $150 to a community in Bangladesh through GoFundMe.

What a nice gesture. Except for one not-so-tiny issue. Michael donated $15,000 instead.

“I get a text on my phone warning me of an unusually large transaction on my credit card. I’m confused and swipe to open the text message. It says I have made a payment of $15,041 to GoFundMe. Immediately I’m sweating. How could I have donated FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS?” he wrote on Reddit.

After retracing his steps, Michael realized he typed part of his credit card number into the donation box by mistake. “Just like that 150 became 15041. Yikes.”
gofundme

Whoops

i.imgur.com

Michael immediately contacted GoFundMe ,who assured him that there’s “no need to worry” since can process a refund in 3-7 business days.

Problem solved, right? Wrong.

Michale continued: “then I ask the agent if the charity will be able to see the donation on the GoFundMe page until it is refunded. ‘What do you mean?’ the agent asks me. ‘What do YOU mean what do I mean?’ was my response. ‘Will they be able to see the $15,041 donation?!’” The answer, woefully, was yes.

Michael planned on telling Joe what had happened the next morning, hopefully before too much info had spread. But it was already too late by then. He awoke to 40+ Facebook notifications, and was sent many messages by one name in particular with a Hindu name.

One of those messages revealed that the man was indeed from Bangladesh, and was surrounded by “dozens of impoverished and hungry people holding bags of food” who not only applauded Michael but thanked him BY NAME for the generous donation. Oy vey.

bangladesh

Michael received dozens of photos just like this one

i.imgur.com

“At this point, I’ve leapt out of my bed and I’m pacing. Part of me wants to scream, part of me wants to crack up laughing. I start swiping through the man’s messages, and it is picture after picture after picture of poor Bangladeshis thanking me for my kind donation. Literally hundreds of photos of frail, elderly, disabled, and malnourished individuals holding signs with my name. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Michael.” Good grief, will the hits never stop coming?

Luckily, this is where the story really turns around.

After getting his refund, Michael ended up donating $1500 rather than $150 after seeing how the community responded, and was told that it would still go “very far for urgent food relief.” Then, folks who had seen Michael’s story on Reddit began donating to the same GoFundMe page.

THEN, the story was read out loud on the super popular Youtube channel Smosh Pit as part of its series “Reading Reddit Stories,” and things really took off. So many “heard about this on Smosh” donations began rolling that the fundraiser now has over $120,000.

In a follow up post, Michael thanked the Reddit community for turning his snafu into a bona fide miracle. Apparently the charity was running on fumes and looking to cancel some of its programs before sudden windfall. In his view, he not only helped a great cause, he got a funny story out of it. A total win-win in the end.

If you’d like to donate to the Bangladeshi community from this story, you can find the GoFundMe here. Just be sure to double check your donation amount!

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8-year-old raises $100,000 after finding out his favorite Waffle House server lived in a motel

Living in a hotel with his family has been the safer option for the health of his daughters.

THV11/Youtube

Boy raises $100,000 for Waffle House server who lived in a motel.

Everyone has their favorite place to eat, and if you visit enough, you get to know the regular servers and sometimes even form a bit of a friendship with them. When 8-year-old Kayzen Hunter started going to a local Waffle House in Arkansas with his parents and sometimes grandpa, he became familiar with his server, Devonte Gardner. Actually, Gardner became Kayzen's favorite server, giving him high fives and letting Kayzen tell him jokes.

The relationship between Gardner and Kayzen's family continued to develop, which led to the little boy noticing Gardner was often dropped off for work because he didn't have a car. Eventually, the Hunter family found out Gardner had a wife and two daughters who were living in a hotel because of issues in their previous home.

“We wanted to find something affordable, so we moved into a low-income area," Gardner told Today.com "We just got tired of infestations with rats and roaches and all this black mold. My daughters were getting sick. No heat and things like that. When it was cold outside, we had to bundle up with like four or five blankets in order to stay warm."


Garner had been living in a hotel with his wife and two daughters, who are 2 and 3 years old, for the past eight months. I'm sure most people have spent a night or two in a hotel, and unless it's a penthouse suite, the space is crowded with more than two people in a room. It serves the purpose for a vacation, but living in a standard hotel room would likely begin to take a toll on your mental health as well as your finances. But when your options are limited, it's an understandable best option.

Of course, after learning this information about his Waffle House best bud, Kayzen wanted to do something to help. That's when he came up with the idea to start a GoFundMe to help Gardner get a car to help him get back and forth to work. Kayzen's mom took a bit of convincing to get on board, but since 8-year-olds can't open an account on their own, his mom had to sign off.

Originally, the goal for the fundraiser was set at $500 to help Gardner get back and forth to work, but as it started to gain more traction, it blew past the original goal and continued to climb. People were moved by the GoFundMe page written by Kayzen and his mom.

“Devonte is one of the most joyous and positive people you’ve ever met!! He always greets us with the biggest smile,” Kayzen wrote on the GoFundMe. “I hope your heart is as BIG as mine and you will help me spread kindness in the world. Any amount helps!!”

Gardner has big plans for the money raised by Kayzen, but his first step is moving into a brand new apartment. The father of two told Today.com that he recently signed the lease on a two-bedroom apartment. As for the rest of the money? Well, the donations keep pouring in. It's currently up to $108,000, and Garner isn't planning on spending it frivolously.

“I’m gonna save the rest because I want to put my daughters in a good school, I want them to be in a good environment,” Gardner explained to Today.com. “Everything I’m getting is going mostly towards my daughters to make sure they have a great, great life. Make sure we won’t have to struggle anymore.”

And yes, he still works at Waffle House and greets Kayzen and his family just like always, high five and all.

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