When it comes to education, 19-year-old Fred Barley let nothing stand in his way not even being homeless. It is said that Fred traveled 6 hours from Conyers, Georgia to Barnesville where he attends Gordon College on a bike! He was found asleep in a tent on campus while he waited to be housed on campus.
Well one kind hearted woman was extremely moved by Fred’s story and decided to go the extra mile for him. She began a Facebook page to get his story out as well as gather donations for his schooling.
“Thanks for taking the time to find out how you can help Fred. Here’s the story of how this page came about – From the Facebook post of Casey Blaney:
I have no idea how these types of things still happen in 2016 but listen to this heart-rending encounter I had today. I was notified by a friend of a situation that was being posted on our community facebook page, here in Georgia. We have a nice little college called Gordon College, here, and they have dorms, etc. This past weekend, a 19 year old Gordon student was found sleeping in a tent, hidden in the bushes with only a box of cereal to eat. He rode a little boys 20″ bicycle 6 hours in the heat of the day – with 2 duffel bags of all he owned and 2 gallons of water – from Conyers, to get to Gordon because he said he thought it would be the safest place for him to sleep in a tent, until he could get in the dorms on July 18th.
The campus police found him and told him to come out with his hands up and then realized there was something wrong; they asked him what the real story was and he told them. He was homeless and this would be his second semester at Gordon. The campus police found out this kid is wanting to be a biology major a was truly homeless and hungry. They took him to a local motel and several officers paid for him 2 nights there. He had nothing but 2 duffel bags, a little bike, a box of cereal and 2 gallon jugs to put water in.”
She then goes on to talk about how she went out of her way to find Fred at the motel he was staying at in order to further assist him via the GoFundMe page she had also created for him. She realized that his stay at the motel was only for two days and he still had a whole week before he would be able to move on campus. So out of the kindness of her heart she paid for him to stay until the 18th and found him a job… but that still wasn’t enough for her.
“I thought that helping find him a job, giving him some money and paying for his motel was going to be it for me. I just couldn’t stop thinking about how lonely and rejected he must feel. How he must be questioning IF he was going to be able to finish college, eat, and make life work. Then I thought — geez, this kid just rode a 20″ little boys bike 6 hours in 100 degree weather….he’s determined. But, I started feeling horrible that he was sitting alone in a motel room with no one….it was KILLING Cole and me. We went back and just sat and talked to him. Then we took him to get a few shorts and t-shirts for his new job and shared some laughs. We just dropped him off a bit ago, back at his motel room.”
Unfortunately Casey has been sent to Hawaii on a military assignment and is no longer able to assist young Fred the way she wished to, which is the reason behind her creating the GoFundMe page to begin with.
“I got the most gut-wrenching text from him where he asked if he could spend time with our family – that he just felt a connection to us – he said he just needed to feel like he was connected to someone. I cried…and I cried. How could this happen to this kid?! I hated to tell him that we were leaving for Hawaii in a few weeks, for a long time. (Military assignment)
So, if you live in this area, and you have room in your heart for someone that needs family…please invite him to dinner a few times a month. Please take time to cheer him on and tell him he can do this. Please pray for him. Please share some life with him. If you want to help him with clothes, shoes, food gift-cards, anything on your heart. Please let me know and I’ll get it to him. He’s worth it. I promise.
His needs list for clothes and College can be found on the Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/successforfred/”
The goal was set for $80k but has since surpassed it and is now at $93, 175!!!! We need more good in this world, so if you’d like to donate, just click the link below!
TSR STAFF: Talia O. @theclosetratchet on Instagram & @tallyohhh on Twitter!
Source: https://www.gofundme.com/successforfred
https://www.facebook.com/groups/successforfred/
