Heartbreaking photo prompts internet to donate over $176,000 to 89

A heartbreaking photo of an elderly man pushing a popsicle cart triggered a flurry of goodwill after the image was posted to Facebook.

While driving in the Little Village area of Chicago, Joel Cervantes Macias noticed a man struggling to push his cart full of paleta, a type of popsicle. After snapping a photo of the man, Macias says he bought 20 popsicles for $50. He later posted the photo to Facebook and received such a positive response, he knew he had to do something more.

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"That one picture had so much to say, and people really responded to it," Macias said to DNA Info. "It communicated so many things — poverty, struggle, pride — it's like it spoke more words than any amount of writing could."

Macias explains that the man, 89-year-old Fedencio Sanchez, and his wife recently lost their only daughter. His wife was selling popsicles to help pay the bills, but she fell ill and was unable to work. So Macias and his friend Joe Loera started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to help cover the couple's expenses, but he was not prepared for the generousness of the internet.

In just two days, donations smashed the $3,000 goal, raising a total of $176,690 at the time of writing.

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Credit: GoFundMe

"The dude just looked like he was suffering," Macias told DNA Info. "I thought, 'This is a guy who aught to be enjoying retirement.'" 

Some contributors expressed concern that the money wouldn't end up in Sanchez's hands, so Macias posted a few messages reassuring his followers that the man was in fact real and that the money would go to help his family. On Monday, Macias shared a Facebook Live, alongside numerous media outlets, showing Sanchez standing with his popsicles cart.

During the video, Gustavo Gutierrez, co-owner of Paletas Poncho, tells Macias that Sanchez has been selling their posicles for more than 20 years.

"Every summer he always comes back," says Gutierrez. "And he's also really, really hardworking."

On Sunday, Macias wrote on the GoFundMe page that they will leave donations open for a few more days and will disperse the funds later in the week.

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