Posted on 09/25/2020 12:43:14 PM PDT by gattaca
Dare you not to sob
An online fundraiser for 89-year-old Derlin Newey — who works 30 hours a week at a Papa John's in Roy, Utah, in order to pay his bills — received more than $12,000 in donations after he went viral on the internet earlier this month.
A video captured the incredible moment a local family delivered the donation to the incredibly hardworking elderly man.
What are the details? Newey unknowingly gained internet fame on TikTok earlier this month when he delivered pizza to a family.
Carlos Valdez and his family recorded their interaction with Newey, who engaged the family in kind and polite conversation while he delivered their food.
Valdez and his family boast more than 53,000 followers on the popular video-sharing platform.
Valdez told KSL-TV that Newey often delivers pizza to the family's home and greets them in a typical fashion each time, chirping, "Hello, are you looking for some pizza?"
Valdez says that the family has grown so fond of the delivery man that they request him each time they order their Papa John's.
The family shared the footage to their TikTok account, which drew appreciation from their followers and quickly went viral.
Following fans' thirst to know more about Newey, Valdez decided to create a fundraiser for the elderly Papa John's employee. He set up the donation through a Venmo account, which drew in donations from across the country.
"Somebody at that age should not be working that much," Valdez said.
What did the family do next? The Valdez family later started a fundraiser for Newey, and ended up raising $12,069 for the elderly man, who lives alone in his mobile home.
On Tuesday, the Valdez family delivered the donation to a tearful Newey via check.
Valdez told Newey, "We collectively collected a gift for you, and I'm here to deliver that gift to you on behalf of the TikTok community."
A clearly emotional Newey cried, "How do I ever thank you? I don't know what to say."
The family also presented him with a custom-made T-shirt reading "Hello, are you looking for some pizza?"
Valdez added that he hopes the donation will take some financial strain off of the elderly gentleman.
"He needed this," Valdez said. "I'm just glad we could help him. We just need to treat people with kindness and respect — the way he does. He stole our hearts."
Some good news for a change.
That’s awesome if he needed money and wasn’t just working to stay active.
I hope he keeps working but that the money improves his senior years.
Precious.
Priceless story, in a lot of ways.
That’s just awesome! Nice place to see there are still decent people in the world.
I think it’s great but it is sad that George Floyd gets over a million on go fund me but this guy gets 12K. I’d rather the amounts flip.
I see...
What a kind gesture. Why is my screen getting blurry?
Thank you for this lovely post!
I saw this in the daily mail this morning. One of the sweetest stories ever.
????
Great story, someone should pass it on to Jerry Jones. He owns 100 or so Papa John’s.
Tik Tok is the Chinese social media platform that President Trump is trying to keep out of the US (unless it is sold to a US company) for fear of spying. I’m seeing it mentioned more often in glowing terms in the media.
Thanks, was confused.
“I’m seeing it mentioned more often in glowing terms in the media.”
That settles it. It’s poison.
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