NBC News reported that on December 5, Australian YouTuber Sam Weidenhofer raised $1.5 million for Veteran Ed Bambas.
Weidenhofer finds people in need and helps them out. Weidenhofer had made a post stating that he wanted to share someone’s story. Ed Bambas had commented on it, leading to Weidenhofer interviewing Ed Bambas at his job.
Ed Bambas was still working as a grocery store employee at the age of 88. During the interview, Ed Bambas stated this was due to the fact that he didn’t have enough money to retire after his wife had passed. Ed Bambas states, “The thing that hurt me the most was when my wife was really sick, and when they took the pension, they also took the health care coverage and all but $10,000 of my life insurance.”
Ed Bambas was struggling after the passing of his wife. His son, Michael Bambas, states, “Right after my mom passed away, I’d go over to the house, and I’d find him basically walking around in circles, not knowing what to do with himself because he took care of my mom for almost 10 years as her primary caretaker. After she passed, he was pretty much lost as far as purpose and all of that.”
After hearing and posting Ed Bambas’ story, Weidenhofer created a GoFundMe for him. The GoFundMe hadn’t even been up for two days before $1 million was raised for Ed Bambas.
Michael Bambas found out about his dad going viral from family members. Michael Bambas states, “I saw my dad, and he was telling me about some guy that came into the store, started asking him questions, and then they wanted to do this little mini-interview, and the guy gave him a $400 tip. That’s all we kind of knew about it, didn’t think much more of it.”
Meijer Supermarket, the store Ed Bambas was working at, agreed to assist him during his retirement process. The store states, “We are providing Ed with no-cost financial planning assistance for life to help him make the most of these generous contributions and will continue to support him as a valued member of our team.”
