Ed Bambas and Samuel Weidenhofer

Though “‘Tis the season for giving” is the heavily promoted message during the holidays, the message often gets corrupted by crass commercialism, making authentic gestures of giving hard to find.

Not so with the thoroughly heart-warming story—now widely disseminated—of 88-year-old Ed Bambas and the 22-year-old Australian social media influencer, Samuel Weidenhofer, who has helped the nearly nonagenarian Bambas to finally retire.

Bambas is a U.S. Army veteran and former General Motors employee who retired in 1999 but experienced a catastrophic financial blow when General Motors took his pension, health insurance, and all but $10,000 of his life insurance in 2012 after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The multinational recovered—as of 2024, General Motors ranked 25th by total revenue out of America’s Fortune 500 companies and 50th on the Fortune Global 500—but Bambas was forced to sell his house and has had to work full-time at a Michigan supermarket to try to pay off the health care bills accrued during his now-deceased wife’s illness.

Weidenhofer, as a child, underwent years of therapy to overcome a serious speech disability but now describes his purpose in life as spreading kindness and positivity, including via his 7.7 million TikTok followers. He suggests that the fortuitous meeting with Bambas—the result of a tip from a follower—was “divinely inspired.”

After Weidenhofer visited Bambas at work and recorded their conversation, wherein Bambas provided moving and tearful details about his story, Sam set up a GoFundMe campaign: “88 & Still Working: Let’s Support Veteran Ed Bambas.” It raised $1 million in a day and a half, and—with continued giving in amounts ranging from $10 to $10,000—now totals over $1.9 million. Weidenhofer assures those who donated that he is “working tirelessly” to set up “a secure bank account or trust for [Bambas] so the money is very safe and he can flourish in the best way possible.”

Weidenhofer also describes innumerable ripple effects from the encounter with Bambas, noting that a woman contacted him who was suicidal but “decided to keep going” after she came across the story. He says,

“I receive messages like that every single day…. To me, that’s the No. 1 thing, right?”

Honorable mention also goes to the generous GoFundMe donors. Clearly, the story of a man who worked hard, served his country, and got backstabbed by deep state and corporate shenanigans struck a deep chord.