US supermarket break room TikTok sparks US$175,000 GoFundMe for 81-year-old worker

Tan KW

Publish date: Mon, 14 Nov 2022, 05:00 PM

TikTok, meet Nola, an 81-year-old cashier at a New Jersey Walmart.

Nola, this is TikTok.

Nola Carpenter didn’t know she was being videoed in a break room at the Hackettstown Walmart last week by a young man who had just started a job inside the store selling phones for third-party retailer OSL. She and Devan Bonagura chatted briefly.

Bonagura, of Budd Lake, posted a 15-second TikTok video of Carpenter resting with the caption, “Life shouldn’t b this hard...,” accompanied by a sad face emoji and melancholy acoustics. It quickly racked up millions of views - it was nearing 27 million as of Nov 11 - and commenters clambered for a way to help.

Nola, meet GoFundMe.

The “Let’s help Nola retire” GoFundMe hit US$175,000 as of Nov 11 from nearly 13,000 donations - many of them in the US$5 to US$25 range. Kelsi Gantt, a spokeswoman for GoFundMe, confirmed the fundraiser is verified, and the company’s trust and safety team was working with Bonagura to ensure the money goes to Carpenter.

“I had no idea this was gonna happen,” Bonagura, 18, told NJ Advance Media. “I thought I was gonna start this GoFundMe and it was going to get, you know, US$100 and then I would’ve been happy.”

Carpenter’s daughter Kathy Carpenter told NJ Advance Media her mom owed about US$160,000 on the mortgage. At that time, the GoFundMe was still short of that amount.

“The whole reason why she’s been working the last 20 years is to pay off her house that she loves so very, very much, and doesn’t want to, you know, let it go or sell it or anything else,” Kathy Carpenter said.

Kathy Carpenter, who also works at the Walmart in Hackettstown, said her father is unable to work after being injured in a car accident a couple of years ago. She didn’t learn of the videos or fundraiser until a coworker told her about it.

Bonagura posted another TikTok two days after the initial video revealing the surprise to Carpenter, with her daughter nearby. Carpenter, wearing her bright blue Walmart vest, consents to being recorded and agrees to receive the funds after Bonagura explains what he did and asks if she accepts.

“Are you willing to accept it?” Bonagura asks in the video, when the campaign had raised around US$114,000 . “I’d accept it, but I’d still have to work until I get the other US$70,000 or US$60,000 to pay off the house,” Nola replies.

“Well, I hope this helps a little bit,” Bonagura said, to which Nola says it will, adding “it won’t take long now,” to pay off her mortgage.

After posting the videos and starting the GoFundMe, Bonagura said he was suspended by OSL due to concerns about how he recorded the video, but he said he doesn’t plan to keep working for the company.

- TNS

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