Community and a local DJ raise money to help man who walks 12 miles each day
[July 18, 2021: Karin Mallett]
A community in Illinois banded together to raise money for a man whose truck was broken.
Braxton Mayes says he's been walking 12 miles to and from work, three hours each way, because his truck stopped working, and he had no other way of getting around.
Mayes owns a 2006 GMC truck with nearly 300,000 miles on it. The 20-year-old says he's been saving up to get it fixed, but in the meantime, he's been walking to work. He says he leaves around 4 a.m. to get there on time.
One day, Chicago talk radio host Ray Stevens, known as Ramblin Ray, noticed Mayes walking and stopped to offer him a ride.
Mayes shared his story with Stevens, and that's when the host started a social media campaign to raise money to fix the truck.
"People are having a hard time finding people to work and here's a guy walking three hours one way just because his truck broke down," Stevens said.
Within a couple days, the campaign has raised more than $4,000, which should be enough to cover the repairs.
"It brought me to tears. It really did, because I didn't know when I was going to come up with the money to be able to pay this off, you know, how many times I'm going to have to walk," Mayes said.
Any leftover money will go to a local food pantry.
The shop expects to have the work finished up on the truck soon.
In the meantime, Braxton's employer says they were unaware he was walking back and forth to work. The business says it's going to give him a ride until the repairs on his truck are done.
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