82-year-old Walmart worker gets over $100,000 for medical bills after viral TikTok
If you’ve stopped by a certain Walmart in Arizona, you may have come across the same sight as TikToker Liz Rizzo: the cheery face of 82-year-old Carman Kelly welcoming you inside, a cane draped over the side of the shopping cart she’s leaning on at the mouth of the store.
Kelly has worked at the Walmart in Apache Junction for more than two years and loves her job, she told KPHO.
“The customers, they hug me,” Kelly told the outlet. “And they make me feel like I’m so special to them.”
Walmart also said in a statement to KPHO that it honors “reasonable accommodations and (has) a long history of working with associates with disabilities.”
But love for her job wasn’t the only reason Kelly was working at Walmart. She has medical bills to pay off too, she told Rizzo, who is known as Rusty Warren on social media.
Once Rizzo heard more about Kelly, she knew she wanted to help.
“She was leaning on a shopping cart with her cane inside the cart. It broke my heart to see this elderly woman having to work,” Rizzo wrote on a GoFundMe she started for Kelly after meeting her.
The goal for the GoFundMe was $10,000 to help Kelly pay off her bills, but in a week, the donation amount had skyrocketed to over $127,000, with nearly 9,000 donations as of Dec. 19.
Rizzo kept viewers in the loop throughout the entire fundraising process and filmed a “fundraiser reveal” video with Kelly several days after launching the GoFundMe.
“You’re changing my whole life,” Kelly said in the video.
Both she and Rizzo thanked all the donors that made it possible.
Even customers heard the news of Kelly receiving the GoFundMe money.
“I started bawling my eyes out,” one longtime Walmart customer said in a TikTok. “I am so excited for her.”
“I live near the Apache Junction Walmart and have been greeted by Carmen many times,” one viewer said. “She is always so cheerful & absolutely deserves this! Thank You!!”
This story was originally published December 19, 2022 at 7:29 PM with the headline "82-year-old Walmart worker gets over $100,000 for medical bills after viral TikTok."
