“I hope that this can inspire someone to maybe do something nice for someone who may need it,” pawnshop employee Jenelle Marie tells publication.
Courtesy of Jenelle Marie
A New Hampshire woman’s viral TikTok video led to a massive outpouring of support and nearly $450,000 in donations for a struggling 91-year-old customer and military veteran.
“I don’t usually pry and ask my customers what they need the money for,” Jenelle, who asked not to use her full name because of her line of work. “But I just thought he [Donald] was a special customer. So I asked, ‘Is everything okay? I don’t understand. Why do you need this much money?’”
Donald told her that his wife has health issues “and my landlord had to raise my rent.”
Jenelle describes Donald as a former Air Force pilot who has been married to his wife for more than 60 years.
“He said that he has no kids, no family and no friends left,” she says. “He said he’s outlived all of them. So it’s just him and his wife.”
Touched by his story, Jenelle spoke about Donald and his financial struggles with the pawnshop’s owner, who suggested taking the interest off of the amount Donald borrowed, she says. That gesture further inspired Jenelle and her fiancé, Jay, the pawnshop’s manager, to launch a fundraising campaign on Donald’s behalf.
Courtesy of Jenelle Marie
“He is the sweetest old man you could ever meet and loves his wife dearly,” Jenelle wrote about Donald in the GoFundMe’s description.
“He takes care of her around the clock and his landlord is raising their rent and he is falling behind terribly with all of his bills,” she wrote. “He’s deathly afraid he’s going to be displaced and that they are going to make his wife go to a home. I’m currently looking to find him a new place to rent that is within his budget, but I was hoping I could fundraise some money to lessen his load of financial stress.
With donations from their family members and friends, the couple initially raised $1,300. When Donald returned to the pawnshop, Jenelle presented him with an envelope containing the money — a moment that she captured on video.
“I can’t let you do this,” a visibly surprised and moved Donald says in the clip.
He later tells Jenelle: “This is the best birthday present anybody ever had.”
Afterward, Jenelle posted the footage on her Facebook so that her family members and friends could see Donald’s expression when he received the gift.
“I thought it was a super cute video,” she says. “I said [in the Facebook post], ‘Thank you everyone who pitched in and donated to Donald. Here’s a little snippet of his reaction.’ And all my friends were like, ‘Oh my God, that’s the sweetest video.’ Then someone was like, ‘Oh, you should post that on TikTok.’”
When Jenelle later shared the video of Donald on TikTok, it immediately went viral, generating at least 14 million views and 1.7 million likes.
“Two hours later,” recalls Jenelle, “I go on and check my TikTok after posting it, and it’s something crazy, like 8,000 views, a hundred comments. One of the comments said, ‘Just donated to the GoFundMe. This is awesome.’ And I’m like, ‘What? I didn’t tag the GoFundMe in that video.’”
When Jenelle went to check the fundraiser page, she saw the total had gone over $2,000.
“I called my fiancé,” she says, “and I’m like, ‘Holy crap. From a month of us fundraising and scraping our pennies up, we got $1,300. Now it’s over what it was in two hours.’ I didn’t think it was going to go anywhere. He is like, ‘This is awesome. We can give him the rest of it next time it comes in.’”
Donations just kept coming in — fast.
“So I’m at work and another hour goes by,” Jenelle says. “I was busy with customers. I look at my TikTok again, and it’s double the views, double the comments, double the likes and double the money on the GoFundMe, at $5,000. I was like, ‘I cannot believe this.’ So now I have my friends and family texting me all day, ‘It’s at $5,200, it’s at $5,500.’ Everyone’s giving me an update. I’ve never been viral anywhere.”
When the GoFundMe later reached $136,000, Jenelle called Donald and asked him to drop by the pawnshop so she could tell him what happened.
When he arrived, she explained to him that she didn’t shut down the GoFundMe after the initial $1,300 was withdrawn from it. She also told Donald she recorded the video of him being handed the money from her and that the clip went viral.
“He just started crying,” she says. “He put his head in his hands, and he was like almost hyperventilating. I said that GoFundMe went from $1,300 to $136,000. He just started bawling his eyes out. He was really emotional, and he was just like, ‘I am just an ordinary person. There are veterans who need this more than I do.’ He’s super, super humble.”
Donald wasn’t available to speak about the video and GoFundMe and has asked not to be identified by his full name in public.
He has, however, given some interviews about the fundraising campaign and what it meant to him.
Speaking with local TV station WMUR, he said of Jenelle’s gesture: “I think it restores my faith in humanity. I’m hoping that this will inspire people out there to maybe do something similar to help all of the rest of the unfortunate veterans that are out there because they desperately need help. They really do.”
Courtesy of Jenelle Marie
Jenelle connected Donald with an attorney to create a trust fund for him. She also spoke with his landlord about the rent.
“His landlord is a super nice guy,” Jenelle says. “[Donald and his wife have] been living with the same landlord for something like 20 years, and he’s never raised their rent. He is pretty fond of Donald. But with that said, it’s still a business at the end of the day and he has his expenses he has to pay for, so he had to raise his rent.”
One of the things Donald plans to do with the GoFundMe money, according to Jenelle, is to have the couple’s 1994 Mercedes repaired.
“I’m like, ‘You want to get a 30-year-old vehicle fixed rather than just go buy one?’” she says. “But that’s just kind of like who he is. He bought it for his wife on her birthday when it first came out 30 years ago. It’s sentimental to him and her, so he’d rather just get that fixed.”
For her part, Jenelle says she has savored the feeling of giving back in such a big way and she urges others to get involved when they can.
“It’s really nice to be able not just be the one who started this,” she says, “but to be able to witness firsthand how much kindness still exists in the world that we very seldom hear about.”
“Thousands of people donated, strangers all around the world, and it’s just really beautiful,” she continues. “I hope that this can inspire someone to maybe do something nice for someone who may need it because you never know what can come from it. I also hope that this could bring some awareness, too, for struggling veterans.”
