<\/p>\n
Samuel Weidenhofer, the content creator behind the record-breaking campaign to help an 88-year-old U.S. Army veteran retire, is an unlikely messenger.<\/p>\n
Born in Adelaide, Australia, Weidenhofer was diagnosed at a young age with verbal dyspraxia (also known as childhood apraxia of speech), a motor speech disability where the brain has trouble coordinating the movements of the tongue, mouth, and jaw to form words.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got sent to a special kindergarten, I did eight years of therapy, my parents never thought I\u2019d be able to communicate properly,\u201d he told CBN News. \u201cSo to see that a voice can make such a difference in the world \u2014\u00a0a voice that I didn\u2019t even know I would be able to communicate properly [with] \u2014 spreads a lot of awareness out there for people with hidden disabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
And he certainly has made a difference.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Weidenhofer posted a video of a seemingly impromptu conversation he had with Ed Bambas, an octogenarian who initially retired in 1999, but is still working a full-time job at a grocery store in Detroit after losing his pension, health insurance, and home when General Motors went bankrupt. His wife, who was ill when he lost his pension and healthcare, passed away seven years ago.<\/p>\n
In just a number of days,\u00a0the GoFundMe\u00a0set up by Weidenhofer has raised $1.78 million for Bambas.<\/p>\n
While this is certainly his most viral effort, Weidenhofer has been creating content for years. His passion for spreading kindness and positivity, though, began when he was just 10 years old, after facing a tragedy he said \u201cbroke me as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom was in the shower and I saw a phone call coming from my uncle and I picked the phone call up,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was my uncle screaming and crying and bursting into absolute tears.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weidenhofer\u2019s uncle told his then-10-year-old nephew his \u201cauntie\u201d had committed suicide.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never heard pain in someone\u2019s voice like that ever again,\u201d recalled Weidenhofer. \u201cAnd it just hurt me so much and that\u2019s why I do [this] in honor of her. \u2026 I believe, if you see a video, you can save someone\u2019s life. And I believe, because of her, so many lives have been saved.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was through his aunt\u2019s life, Weidenhofer said, he found his \u201cpurpose on this world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old social media influencer noted even his latest content \u2014\u00a0his encounter with Bambas \u2014\u00a0is making a positive impact on more than just the veteran\u2019s life. Weidenhofer said he heard from a woman who was suicidal but came across his conversation with Bambas \u201cand decided to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI receive messages like that every single day,\u201d he said. \u201cThis truly saves lives. To me, that\u2019s the No. 1 thing, right? You can raise people money, you can make a huge change in their lives, but the simple things, like a message saying, \u2018You\u2019ve helped save my life,\u2019 \u2026 speaks volumes.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for his encounter with Bambas, Weidenhofer said their meeting was divinely inspired.<\/p>\n
The content creator explained someone commented on one of his posts, telling him about an elderly man who works at a Meijer supermarket in Brighton, a suburb outside of Detroit. The commenter knew nothing about Bambas other than to say he is a kind man seemingly going through a difficult time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly didn\u2019t have much backstory on Ed,\u201d Weindehofer said. \u201cTo see what has come out of it and to have him share his story and how authentically it came across, because it was at complete random, out of the blue, and now it\u2019s inspired millions. It\u2019s unbelievable to see the support that\u2019s come through.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can watch our full conversation with Weidenhofer in the video above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Samuel Weidenhofer, the content creator behind the record-breaking campaign to help an 88-year-old U.S. Army veteran retire, is an unlikely messenger. Born in Adelaide, Australia, Weidenhofer was diagnosed at a young age with verbal dyspraxia (also known as childhood apraxia of speech), a motor speech disability where the brain has trouble coordinating the movements of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[2930,2927,2928,1430,2924,2929,2925,48,2931,2926],"class_list":["post-11616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jesus","tag-88yearold","tag-content","tag-creator","tag-millions","tag-motivates","tag-raising","tag-samuel","tag-truth","tag-veteran","tag-weidenhofer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}