TikToker Helps Walmart Worker, 82, Retire

Butch Marion, an 82-year-old Walmart worker in Maryland, is finally hanging up his blue vest. A GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $126,000 to help the widowed Navy veteran retire. The campaign was started by business owner Rory McCarty, who said he was "astounded" to see McCarty still working when he went to the Walmart in Cumberland last month, Fox 5 DC reports. Inspired by a similar campaign he had seen for another Walmart worker, McCarty started the campaign with a Dec. 16 TikTok video that went viral, bringing in $100,000 in just two days. "I can't thank you guys enough," Marion said in another video. He told McCarty he had been working since he was 11 years old.

McCarty presented Marion with a check for $108,000 on Wednesday, his last day at the store, where he had worked around 30 hours a week. "I feel like a new man," Marion told Fox 5 DC, describing himself as a "bird out of a cage." Marion said he planned to do some work around the house, see his daughters and grandchildren, and enjoy the rest of his life, People reports. Marion and McCarty are now friends and they recently had a meal with Elizabeth Rizzo, who helped raise more than $135,000 so an 82-year-old Walmart worker in Arizona could retire last month. In November, another TikToker raised $186,000 for an 81-year-old Walmart worker in New Jersey, Fortune reports. (More uplifting news stories.)