Kayzen Hunter launched an online fundraiser with a goal of $5,000 to help a waffle vendor pay for a car to get to work. The initiative quickly went viral and the fundraising totally exceeded its expectations.
At only 8 years old, Kayzen Hunter had no intention of becoming a model. But by wanting to help his favorite waffle vendor, this little boy managed to raise more than $99,000 in just one week. It is close to 100,000 dollars this Monday, March 6.
This beautiful story takes place in the United States, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Every Saturday, Vittoria, Kayzen’s mother, takes him to eat his breakfast at Waffle House. Kayzen loves waffles and he has made a friend there: Devonte Gardner, the waiter, a man who always smiles, who amazes him for taking orders without notes, without any errors, and who always welcomes him in clapping his hand.
After a year, Kayzen learns that Devonte Gardner walks miles every day to come to work, for lack of a car, and that he sleeps in a motel with his wife and two daughters. Devonte Gardner works every day at the restaurant. His wife is employed in a McDonald’s. Both are paid mainly on tips, but that’s not enough.
Almost $100,000 raised
Shocked, revolted, the little boy therefore asks his mother for the right to open an online kitty to try to offer a car to Devonte. He suggests it in the morning, insists in the afternoon, puts the subject back on the table the next day… So the mother ended up accepting. Kayzen sets the fundraising goal at $5,000. He opened the kitty on February 18, and very quickly, it was shared on social networks, spotted by the local press, then major newspapers, TV channels, bringing in donations to the point of literally exploding the objective of $5,000 and getting closer to 100,000.
Messages of support from donors number in the thousands and their content speaks volumes. Why give? “Wellsaid one, because I, too, have been through what this server is going through”“because the little boy is right“, said another, “because what is happening to this man is not fair and must mobilize us.”
And we understand that Kayzen’s initiative highlights much more than an individual story, it speaks for the 37 million Americans who live below the poverty line, as figures published by the Washington Post remind us. even while working, every day, all the time. It highlights what we get used to, and which requires the spontaneity, the elementary generosity of a child to be seen.