CHICAGO – What began as a small effort to help out a Chicago man who sold frozen treats has resulted in a big payout for the 89-year-old.
Fidencio Sanchez accepted a cheque from GoFundMe for more than US $380,000 on Wednesday. The online fundraising page launched by Joel Cervantes Macias on Sept. 9 started with a goal of US $3,000.
“It gave me a new hope in humanity,” Macias told WBBM. “Everyone from around the world is just like you and me, just trying to help people.”
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More than 17,000 people from over 60 countries donated money after seeing a picture of Sanchez struggling to push his cart and selling paletas – a kind of Mexican frozen ice pop.
“The original idea was to give him a day off,” said Jose Loera, a friend of Macias’ who came up with the idea for the campaign. “We never imagined this would be the end result.”
The campaign for “Fidencio the paleta man” was started just a few weeks ago after his only daughter passed away in late July.
“She was the main support in the family,” Dulce Perez, Sanchez’s grandaughter, told WBBM.
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The sudden loss of their daughter forced Sanchez and his wife to help care for their grandchildren, including two young grandsons.
“We thought, ‘What are we going to do? We have to pay the bills,'” Sanchez told WLS with the help of a translator.
Perez told WBBM that after her mother died, her grandfather and grandmother felt “burdened” to “not miss any days” of selling paleta.
Sanchez returned to the streets, where he had spent 23 years selling the cold popsicles, determined to make ends meet.
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That’s when Macias, who grew up in the Little Village area of Chicago, came across Sanchez pushing his cart.
“I saw this elderly man struggling to push his paleta cart,” wrote Macias on the fundraising page. “It broke my heart seeing this man that should be enjoying retirement still working at this age.”
“I then bought 20 paletas and gave him $50 and said may God bless him and drove away.”
A photo Macias took of Sanchez, and posted online, received a wave of sympathy for the 89-year-old. The reaction made Macias and a friend want to do more for the aged street vendor and his family.
Macias set up the fundraising page and it took off.
“People started telling us like, ‘Hey, your grandpa’s picture is up,'” Perez said. “It was very surprising. I was like, ‘is this for real?'”
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Within hours, the target Macias set had been met.
“I set (the fundraiser goal) for a modest $3,000 and in 54 minutes, to be exact, we already reached that,” Macias told the Chicago Tribune on Sunday. “If I wasn’t lucky enough to take that picture, I don’t think it would’ve had the response that it did.”
“It’s just amazing how the power of many people can just be so big,” Perez told WBBM. “I’m just very thankful that people have the compassion.”
Sanchez told the Tribune Monday the money means his paleta-selling days may be over and that he “will be able to rest more at home.”
“I have a new opportunity to rest thanks to the generosity of strangers,” he said.
Cervantes Macias says the money will give Sanchez financial security. He notes Sanchez loves to work because he believes it keeps him young.
— With files from The Associated Press
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