Even nearly $1 million in donations couldn’t push 78-year-old DoorDash driver Richard Pauley into retirement.
Pauley received his life-changing check totaling $965,868 on Friday — just weeks after a video went viral that showed him carefully climbing a flight of stairs to deliver a Starbucks order in East Tennessee.
The video, shared by customer Brittany Smith, shows Pauly ringing her doorbell as he goes above and beyond with his deliveries.
It quickly went viral and inspired strangers to flock to the massive fundraiser aimed at giving Paulie and his wife, Brenda, who often chaperone his deliveries, a break from medical bills and costs.
“My wife worked for an insurance company and they ended up letting her go,” Pauley said. TODAY.comShe added that even with Social Security, they struggled to pay for her medications and bills.
“When I left, it really put pressure on us to pay the bills. I got lazy. You know, when we turn 65 and retire… I wasn’t doing much, but all of a sudden, I had to go back to work.”
The reel went headfirst into the gig business, completing nearly 6,000 DoorDash orders, often with Brenda riding shotgun.
The work gave him purpose and a reason to keep moving, even when widespread fame took over.
“The last two shifts I worked hard because people stopped and took pictures with me and all kinds of things,” he said. “I’ll be back to work in the next few days.”
Despite the overwhelming generosity of strangers, Pauley says the work itself is part of the reason he keeps working.
“They have prepared me and my wife so that we can live a more comfortable life, but after a week or two of this situation and things calm down, we will go back to work because I feel good because I am useful,” he said.
The fundraiser, titled “Give Richard a Chance to Rest Again,” attracted more than 32,000 donations, including a $20,000 contribution from DoorDash CEO Tony Shaw, who praised Paulie for the thousands of deliveries he has made.
Smith, who helped launch the campaign, joined the couple at a local burger joint last week to show them the impact of donations.
They have been married for more than 56 years, and the Bakrat family has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of generosity.
“It’s really hard to believe that there are so many people being so generous as to try to help us,” Pauley said. WSMV. “It takes a lot of stress off of us and makes life livable again.”
Brenda added: “Sometimes you look at all the bills you have to pay…if [you] Don’t, you’ll end up in the hospital with something more expensive.