Every day for the last seven months, 21-year-old dad Trenton Lewis from Arkansas would wake up at midnight to walk to his new UPS job just over nine kilometres away just in time for his 4 a.m. shift.
Then after he’d clock out, Lewis would make the same trek back home, all in an effort to be a father and support his 14-month-old girl Karmen.
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Lewis – who’s from Little Rock – didn’t have a car and relied on walking to and from his new job, and didn’t tell many people how he got to the office every day because, he says, he was never one for making excuses.
“I don’t want to miss work at all,” he says. “I had figured I had wanted to be with my daughter to get to support her because I want to be a father.”
However, co-work Kenneth Bryant found out.
“Here’s a young man who wants to work and will do whatever it takes to be successful,” Bryant says.
So Bryant began asking others around the office if they would be interested in putting money towards buying Lewis a vehicle. Many wanted to help.
“It just caught on like wildfire,” Bryant says.
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When Bryant told the car dealer what the vehicle was for, the salesman told Bryant he’d be willing to work with him to get him a good price, Bryant told CNN.
Soon, enough money was raised to buy Lewis a car. Colleagues then lured Lewis to the parking lot, telling him it was a “union meeting,” according to CNN.
That’s when they surprised Lewis last week with a 2006 Saturn Ion, which was filmed on a Facebook Live video.
Lewis was both shocked and thankful.
“This was my first car,” he says. “I have good co-workers – great, awesome co-workers.”
Lewis’ first ride in his car was to pick up his daughter to grab a bite to eat, CNN reports.
“I knew days were going to get better if I kept coming to work,” he says. “And that’s just what I did.”