In the true Christmastide spirit, generous Americans and Australians banded together on the Internet to raise enough money to allow an almost 90-year-old veteran to retire from his job.
Ed Bambas originally retired from his job at a General Motors plant back in 1999, according to Military.com. But that GM plant went bankrupt, and his pension was suddenly wiped out in 2012. Bambas’ wife developed medical problems, and the bills necessitated the sale of most of their assets, including his house. His wife ended up passing away about seven years ago, and Bambas went back to work.
Five days a week, Bambas has been working eight-hour shifts at a Meijer grocery store. While Bambas lives in Michigan, Australian influencer Samuel Weidenhofer — who tries to identify and highlight people struggling financially — learned about the now 88-year-old man, Military.com explained.
❤️ An 88-year-old veteran received $1.7 million after online supporters raised funds to help him retire from his Michigan supermarket job.
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 7, 2025
pic.twitter.com/IHZaXVuT6E
Weidenhofer was in Detroit and, in true influencer style, explicitly expressed his intention of finding someone to interview whom he thought needed help, and received a tip about Bambas. The influencer’s video interview of Bambas at the grocery store went viral (see above), and as of this morning $1.9 million had been raised on the GoFundMe campaign created for him.
“Ed is 88 years old, an Army veteran, and he still works five days a week, eight hours a day,” the GoFundMe campaign says. “He has never received the pension he earned after a lifetime of hard work, and he lost his wife years ago. Despite everything, Ed shows up every day with quiet dignity, strength, and perseverance. His story is a stark reminder that too many of our seniors, especially veterans face incredible challenges just to survive… Every dollar we raise will go directly to supporting him.”
The size of the fundraising effort becomes apparent when realizing that some of the individual donations are as small as five dollars. Military.com said they were 62,000 donors as of Friday and that Bambas’s son confirmed his father did not know about the amount of money he was going to get until Weidenhofer presented it to him.
Christians are marking the pre-Christmas season of Advent now, traditionally a time for penance and charitable works of mercy. Today in the Catholic Church is the celebration of the uniquely immaculate conception of Jesus‘s mother Mary through a special grace of God, a time when Catholics reflect on Mary’s life of service to her Son and his followers. On December 6, Orthodox Christians and Catholics honor St. Nicholas, the fourth-century bishop so famous for his generosity to the poor. In the Jewish faith, the time for Hanukkah approaches. All of which is to say that it is a peculiarly appropriate time of year to donate money to those who need it most.
Related: When St. Nick Swung an Ax and Made Demons Flee
As we learned from the SNAP sob story campaign during and after the government shutdown, often stories about supposedly starving or floundering Americans in the mainstream news are false. But there are still many Americans who could benefit from some financial help, and the best way to assist these citizens is not by demanding more taxpayer money from the government, but by donating to those people ourselves.
The Internet and social media have expanded the reach of grassroots charity, allowing someone all the way in Australia to galvanize a campaign for someone in Michigan. This Advent and Christmas season, maybe we should see if there are any local charities or deserving online campaigns to which we can donate.
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