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Walter Carr, right, shakes the hand of Pelham Police Chief Larry Palmer and the Pelham officers who helped get him to his job on Friday morning after a nearly seven-hour walk.
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Walter Carr, left, was surprised by his boss, Bellhops CEO Luke Marklin, with Marklin’s 2014 Ford Escape on Monday after Carr walked almost seven hours to work this past Friday.
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Walter Carr, left, embraces Bellhops CEO Luke Marklin after Marklin gave him his own car after hearing how Carr walked almost seven hours to work last week.
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Walter Carr, left, covers his mouth after Bellhops CEO Luke Marklin gave him his own vehicle on Monday after hearing how Carr walked almost 20 miles to work this past Friday.
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Walter Carr, in red, walks to Bellhops CEO Luke Marklin after Marklin gave him his 2014 Ford Escape on Monday.
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Walter Carr sits in his new 2014 Ford Escape after Bellhops CEO Luke Marklin, the car’s previous owner, gave it to him after hearing about his dedication to his job.
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Walter Carr hugs Jennifer Lamey after Carr was surprised with a vehicle on Monday. Carr walked almost seven hours to help Lamey and her family move last Friday.
Walter Carr isn’t the kind of man to make excuses.
When Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home in New Orleans in 2005, his family moved to the Birmingham area, and Carr continued to pursue his high school diploma, graduating from G.W. Carver High School as the only boy in his class from the school’s Academy of Health Sciences.
When he applied for a job at Bellhops, a digital moving company [https://www.getbellhops.com/], he wasn’t happy with the first video he shot of himself answering interview questions. So he recorded his answers again. And again, and again, until finally, on the 16th try, Carr felt he had done a good enough job and submitted his application.
So when Carr’s vehicle broke down on the night of Thursday, July 12, at his home in Homewood, on the eve of his first move with the Chattanooga-based company, Carr, who plans to enter the U.S. Marines after finishing at Lawson State Community College, didn’t call and cancel. Not knowing anybody on the moving team, Carr didn’t call them for a ride.
Instead, Carr began walking, at midnight, from Homewood to Pelham, to move the Lamey family from their Pelham home to their new house in the Meadowbrook area, an 8 a.m. appointment. What would have been a roughly 30 minute drive turned into an attempt to walk seven hours just to get to work on time.
At 4:30 a.m., Pelham police officers Mark Knighten, Klint Rhodes and Carl Perkinson found Carr walking on Pelham Parkway and stopped him to ask what he was doing. When Carr told them his story, the officers bought him breakfast and spoke with him.
The morning shift officer, Scott Duffey, picked him up at 6:30 and took him to the Lamey’s home and spoke with Jennifer Lamey, who verified he was supposed to be there to help them move.
“My heart just sank,” Lamey said. “What he had endured just to be there to help me with my move.”
The family invited Carr in, offered to make him breakfast and asked if he wanted to go upstairs and take a nap before the rest of the crew arrived. Carr declined, saying he’d had a four-hour nap the night before and was ready to get started with the move.
“I just wanted to get to my job and show I was dedicated to it,” Carr said.
On Monday, Bellhops CEO Luke Marklin surprised Carr by giving him his own 2014 Ford Escape, which he drove down from Chattanooga.
“It’s in much better hands with you than it is with me, and I couldn’t think of a better way to part ways with this or to put it to better use,” Marklin told Carr.
Carr, who walked 30 more minutes to get to Monday’s surprise event, said he wants to use the car to inspire others, and wants to give back to his community.
“No matter what the challenge is, you can break through the challenge,” Carr said. “... Everything is possible. Nothing is impossible that you make possible. … You can do everything you set your mind to.”
Carr said he knew God was with him, and while he did have thoughts of turning back, he knew that wasn’t the type of man he was, and so he kept going.
When the other movers from Bellhops arrived to the Lamey home on Friday morning, Carr shook their hand, and they thanked him for coming, having no idea what he’d been through. While Carr wasn’t going to talk about what happened, Lamey said she told him to tell his story, and the other workers were amazed.
“I was just ready to get the job going,” Carr said. “... It’s that ‘Never die’ attitude.”
Marklin said he woke up on Sunday and read, alongside hundreds of others, Lamey’s post on Facebook about one of his newest employees. The story led him to give away his own car so Carr can be a part of many more Bellhops jobs in the future.
“It really blew me away, and our company is really built on heart and grit, and Walter just took it to the next level,” Marklin said. “I’m the CEO, and I pride myself in setting the bar for the company, on how much passion we have for what we do. When I read Walter’s story, it was something that I wasn’t even sure that I would do. … That story raised it for us.”
Lamey said Carr’s efforts made an impact not just on her, but her young sons as well.
“For them, if they have a hard day or bad day, I just say, ‘But Walter,’” Lamey said. “That’s going to have to be all I have to say because now it’s not just a story they’ve heard about or that I’ve read to them, they got to meet this young man, to see somebody that did something they didn’t even think was possible, or that anybody would want to do.”
A GoFundMe has also been set up to continue to help Carr: https://www.gofundme.com/5pmd8-thank-you-walter. As of July 18, the page had raised more than $50,000 to help Carr, and people from all 50 states and 12 countries had pledged their support.
