Every night for the past five years, Tony Berard rode his mountain bike down seven miles of congested highway to work the night shift at a Michigan grocery store. On November 21, he was huffing and puffing his way through a snowstorm when a driver coming in the opposite direction, Jason Kapoor, noticed him struggling in the freezing cold. Kapoor swung his door open and offered Berard a ride to work. Without hesitation, Berard responded, “I would love a ride.”
When Berard sat down in his car, Kapoor noticed that his beard and mustache were caked in ice. During their ride, Kapoor learned that Berard’s wife had been sick and, because of mounting medical bills, he couldn’t afford to fix their cars. To make ends meet, Berard hopped on his bike every night and rode seven miles to work. Moved by Berard’s story, Kapoor shared it on Facebook.
“[Berard] gets in. I ask where he’s heading, and he said Meijer in White Lake. Now mind you this is a 7 mile ride. proceeds to tell me this is his 5th winter riding his bike to work. He does so because he can not afford a car due to the majority of his income going towards his ill wife. This gentlemans name is Tony. He isn’t a weirdo, or serial killer. He is just a hard working man, trying to make a living to take care of his wife. If you see Tony riding his bike around 10:30 down M59, try to offer him a ride.”
Kapoor’s Facebook post took off and was eventually shared over 17,000 times. The next night, a driver who had seen the post saw Berard as he trudged his way down the highway and offered him a ride as well. After hearing about the kindness of a second stranger, Kapoor launched a GoFundMe page titled “Keep Tony Warm,” and in just nine days it raised over $19,000, enough for Berard to purchase a new minivan. As luck would have it, Kapoor worked at a car lot that happened to be on Berard’s commute. Together, the two men worked out a deal to get Beard a minivan with a working heater.
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(H/T WXYZ News)
