Internet raises over $230K for elderly popsicle vendor

Because of benevolent and compassionate Americans, an 89-year-old popsicle vendor from Chicago will finally “push his cart” away with over $230,000 in hand.

One of these kind and compassionate people was restaurant owner Joel Cervantes Macias, who captured an exhausted Fidencio Sanchez pushing his cart filled with paletas, or Mexican popsicles, at the Latino area of Little Village and uploaded it on his Facebook account. Soon after purchasing 20 popsicles for $50, he pushed himself to help the elderly man cope up with his financial hardships.

Macias created a separate Go Fund Me page on Friday, hoping he could raise a few hundred dollars and surprise Sanchez with a well-deserved day off.

“It broke my heart seeing this man that should be enjoying retirement still working at this age. I had to pull over and took this picture,” he wrote on the page. Macias also narrated Sanchez’s gloomy situation—as an elderly man who lost his only daughter last month, he had to buckle up and work for his two grandchildren. Both Sanchez and his wife laboriously sold paletas for decades, but a severe ailment struck his wife, and Sanchez has only himself to rely on.

To Macias’ surprise, the fund-raising page attracted  dozens of donors, and the amount piled up to $230,000 as of Tuesday morning.

“He’s a really hard-working gentleman. He’s always giving. He already got the advice from everybody to take it easy and stop doing it. He just doesn’t want to. He’s like a little kid. He wants to get going.” Gustavo Gutierrez, Sanchez’ supplier of popsicles, told DNA Info.

Macias opts to reward Sanchez with the collected funds for his immediate retirement. On Tuesday, he visited Sanchez and his family and announced the good news. “Let’s all pitch in and help make life a little easier and brighten both of their days,” he concluded in his fundraiser page. Gianna Francesca Catolico/rga