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Strangers donate over $160,000 to an 89-year old ice cream vendor
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Strangers rally to help an 89-year old ice cream vendor who is struggling to pay bills after the deathof his daughter. - photo by Noelle Baldwin
The streets of the Little Village area of Chicago are familiar to Fidencio Sanchez. He sold paletas (popsicles) from his cart for 23 years before retiring earlier this year, according to a Daily Mail article. But when his daughter passed away unexpectedly, leaving Sanchez and his wife responsible for two grandchildren with no way to support them or pay the bills, the 89-year old returned to work.

According to an article on Good Morning America, the sight of Sanchez pushing his cart intrigued Joel Cervantes, a fellow Chicagoan. Cervantes posted a photo of Sanchez on Facebook and told the Chicago Tribune that he thought Sanchez should be enjoying his retirement instead of struggling to push a heavy cart through the streets of Chicago.

Cervantes decided to do something about it. With the help of his friend, Joe Loera, he set up a GoFundMe page for the Sanchez family. The original goal was to raise $3,000. Currently, more than 7,000 people have donated $160,450 in two days. Cervantes posted on the GoFundMe page on September 11 that the account was going to stay open for several more days, before the money is donated to the Sanchez family at the end of the week.