WASHINGTON, February 2nd (Sputnik) — Evan Leedy, a 19-year-old student at Macomb Community College, came across an article in the Detroit Free Press about Robertson, a 56-year-old factory worker who walks 21 miles each day to get to his job in Rochester Hills, Michigan from his home in Detroit.
“What he walks is like me walking to work every day and I honestly couldn’t believe that,” Leedy told ABC News. “I thought to myself, ‘What would I do if my car broke down?,’ and I thought, ‘I have my parents and I have money to get an Uber.’"
“This guy doesn’t have that and he didn’t quit,” Leedy said.
Leedy had a call to action; he started a GoFundMe page for the man in the hopes he could raise enough money to cover bus and taxi fares for Robertson. However, as people kept donating, he kept raising the funding goal.
“I initially set the goal for $5,000 just to get him something,” Leedy said. “An hour later we had $2,000 donated already.“I bumped it up to $10,000 and within four hours we had over $10,000,” he said. “I bumped it up again and by the end of the day we had over $30,000 and now it’s up to over $50,000.”
Honda’s corporate office caught wind of the story and told Leedy they’re willing to donate a car for Robertson. A local Chevrolet dealership also offered a car to the factory worker.
"When I saw the story I said 'wow.' Some people said you guys have got to do something,” Darwin Filey, sales manager for Rodgers Chevrolet told the Detroit Free Press. “Then I called my owner and she read the story and said put something together.”
“We are in a position that we can help and we just want to pay it forward,” Angela Osborne, a customer service representative for the same dealership, told ABC.
“His story really struck home.”
Blake Pollack, Vice President of Wealth Management at UBS and a long time friend of Robertson’s, told ABC News that all of the support has come as a shock to Robertson.
Pollock learned that Robertson left his home in Detroit early in the morning each day to get to his shift at work at 2 PM to earn 10.55 an hour.
Getting home is even more difficult, because the bus lines do not run at night.
“I said, ‘Next time I see you I’ll give you a ride,’” Pollock recalled. “A few months later I saw him literally standing on top of a snow bank and gave him a ride.”
Pollack guessed he may have given Robertson close to 100 rides over the years, since Robertson’s Honda Accord broke down in 2005. He even left his home late one night to make sure Robertson got home safely.
“I’m sitting in my warm house and I’m thinking this guy has five more miles to walk,” Pollock said.
