For the past year-and-a-half, 19-year-old Derrick Taylor has been waking up for work in the wee hours of the morning to start his five-mile walk to his 4 a.m. shift at UPS.
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Taylor walks in total 10 miles a day to get to and from his Oxford, Alabama job so he can support himself and his sick mother. Without the funds to purchase a car to make his transportation time shorter and no access to public transit, the young man is forced to pound the pavement.
Co-workers of Taylor noticed him walking to work everyday and wanted to do something to help since the young man refused to accept rides from anyone. So the employees pooled their money together to buy him a used Jeep Cherokee.
The car cost $1,100 for the employees to purchase and each one was happy to surprise Taylor with the wonderful gift.
In a YouTube video, his co-workers surprise him with the gift.
At first UPS co-worker J.D. Ward calls Taylor up out of the crowd and says “This is a hard-working young man.”
And then says,”He makes me emotional.”
“This young man wants to work so bad, he walks to work from way out of town” and “The group here, we’ve got some good news for you. Everybody came together and you don’t have to walk no more. You’ve got your own ride.”
The employees erupt into applause, and shouts of “Amen!” could be heard.
In response, the young man said, “If I could, I would go around and thank everybody one by one.”
“This is really going to change a lot for me, so thank you again.”
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