High School Students Rake In Over $270K To Help 80-Year-Old Custodian Go ‘Back To Retirement’

Feb 28, 2023 by apost team

A group of high school students spread some kindness when they decided to set up a fundraising campaign to help one of their school janitors finally retire. Greyson Thurman, Marti Yousko and Banner Tidwell of Callisburg High School in Callisburg, Texas, teamed up to launch a GoFundMe on Feb. 15, 2023, to reel in donations for an 80-year-old janitor at their school named Mr. James.

According to CBS, Callisburg is a rural town near the Oklahoma border with a small population of only about 300 people. There are about 1,150 students, 86 teachers and 164 staff members in the school district.

James had previously said goodbye to the hallways as he had already left his custodial job, but when his rent was increased, he needed to return to work in order to make ends meet. The students were sad to hear this and wanted to do something to help him out. They turned to social media to spread the word about their amazing janitor and encouraged people to donate what they could so James could finally live a more restful life.

Fortunately, it was clear that the community agreed that James deserved to take the break he earned, and the donations began flooding in. The turnout was pretty impressive, with most of the donations coming from Callisburg students and staff. The GoFundMe closed on Feb. 24, 2023, with thousands upon thousands of dollars coming in.

Needless to say, the entire school community was overwhelmed by the response. Read on to learn more about this inspiring story.

Greyson went to TikTok on Feb. 15, 2023, to share a video of James and asked his followers to do their part to help the elderly janitor retire. The text overlay in the video read:

“This is our 80 y/o janitor who had his rent raised and had to come back to work. Let’s help Mr. James out!”

Greyson captioned the TikTok, “Go fund me is in the bio! My classmates and I hate seeing Mr. James here, no one his age should have to be cleaning our messes up to continue to live.”

The video gained traction and led even more people outside the Callisburg community to hear about James and his situation. The accompanying GoFundMe campaign brought more than $270,000.

Everyone was blown away by the response and was grateful to those who chipped in. Jason Hooper, the principal at Callisburg High, told KXII: “It’s amazing. The need that was met because of three kids – of all of our students who pitched in to meet that need.”

Hooper explained that James did not want to disclose his full name and wanted to avoid the spotlight. The school hired him back in January 2023, and it wasn’t long before the students realized that he needed help.

Banner, Greyson and Marti spoke with KXII about how they knew they needed to help the janitor since he was forced out of retirement due to high living costs. "It's just so sad seeing an 80-year-old man having to do things that no 80-year-old person should have to do," Banner said.

There’s no exact date for when James will say goodbye to his job at the school, but Hooper said the custodian is “ready to go back to retirement and live the comfortable life.”

apost.com

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