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The Burger King cook, Kevin Ford, who never missed a day of work, was recently given a gift for his devotion. He raised more than $400K from his now-viral Instagram video. With the raised money, he bought his first house, calling it a "Christmas miracle".
Kevin Ford never missed a single shift in his 27 years of work. With the raised money, on December 13, Ford paid $177,000 for his new Pahrump, Nevada, home. It is 846 square feet and has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. As per Fox News, he announced the news on social media to his fans.
The Burger King restaurant in Las Vegas, where Kevin Ford worked, gave him a transparent bag filled with gifts including movie tickets, pens, candy, and coffee cups as a thank-you for all of his hard work and dedication over the years.
Showing off the bag, in a video uploaded to Instagram on December 29, Kevin Ford stated,
“I wanted to show you something, something you made possible, you did for me, just a hardworking guy. Now I know it needs some work, gonna cut off the haters already, I know it’s not a mansion but it’s mine.”
Meanwhile, his daughter started a GoFundMe fundraiser for him.
Kevin Ford, who worked at Burger King for 27 years, bought his first home
Addressing the gifts he received, he told NPR at the time,
“I was happy to get this because I know not everyone gets something.”
The video of Ford accepting his gifts went viral among the netizens. On the other hand, his daughter Seryna crowdsourced money so that he could go see his grandchildren, After his video went viral, she launched a GoFundMe fundraiser on his behalf, hoping to raise a sufficient amount.
On the official GoFundMe page, Seryna wrote a message that reads,
“The man in that video is my father. He has worked at his job for 27 years and yes, he has never missed a day of work. He originally began working at this job as a single father when he gained custody of me and my older sister 27 years ago."
She also added to the fundraiser page,
“My dad continues to work there, because though he does look young, he is coming up on retirement age and leaving would cost him his retirement. In no way are we asking for money or is he expecting any money but if anyone feels like blessing him he would love to visit his grandchildren.”
Thanks to the contributions of almost 14,700 people, the campaign has now raised $445,362. The target has been set to $450,000 as more donations come in, and the post is still up.
According to the New York Post, Kevin Ford said that the funds raised had saved his life. He claimed to be “depressed” at the time, but he is now looking forward to visiting his grandchildren more frequently. However, he gets to keep $350,000 from the funds raised after paying the GoFundMe expenses.
Following the widespread dissemination of Ford's story online, NBC's "Today" scheduled a live visit from his grandchildren to New York, marking the one day he had missed from work in all the years.
According to the same source, Kevin Ford is also giving his daughter a portion of the GoFundMe funds that were raised to assist her in purchasing a house for himself and his grandchildren. He continues to work at the same Burger King, but the remaining funds are being saved for retirement.
