88-year-old veteran who was working five days a week can finally retire after crowdfunding raises $1M for him

A viral video helped raise over $1m for Ed Bambas in under 48 hours

Internet “positivity influencers” have helped raise almost $1.2m for an 88-year-old veteran who was working five days a week at a supermarket, finally helping him retire.

Ed Bambas, who had initially been retired from General Motors in 1999 but then lost his pension after the company went bankrupt, was manning self-service checkouts at Meijer in Brighton, Michigan, when he caught the attention of Samuel Weidenhofer, an Australian social media influencer.

According to Weidenhofer, someone commenting on one of his videos mentioned an “82-year-old” still working and helping customers.

As a result, Weidenhofer booked a flight to Michigan and, together with another influencer from Detroit named Mike McKinstry, they worked to find Bambas.

"We walked around Meijer for about two hours and we were looking for this friendly, jolly older man and we ran into Ed at the checkout and knew it was him right away," McKinstry told Detroit’s WXYZ news.

Ed Bambas, 88, still works five days a week at Meijer supermarket in Brighton, Michigan (GoFundMe)

A video of the interaction posted to TikTok and Instagram rapidly racked up millions of views, and Weidenhofer set up a GoFundMe fundraiser for Bambas.

In under 48 hours, the fundraiser broke the $1m target, and is still going – over $1.2m as of Wednesday.

In the viral video, Bambas explained that after serving in the military in the 1960s, he went to work for General Motors.

He retired from his job in 1999 and believed he would live in comfort with his wife, Joan, on his pension.

"I felt comfortable. I felt I had a stable financial footing. I owned my house," Bambas told reporters this week at WXYZ. "We didn't have any major worries.”

However, after General Motors’ bankruptcy filing in 2009 and the subsequent restructuring, he claimed he lost his pension in 2012. Shortly after that, his wife became ill.

“The thing that hurt me the most, was when my wife was really sick they took the pension and they also took the healthcare coverage.”

His wife died seven years ago, and he said, “Since then, I’ve been trying to re-establish myself”.

"Once my wife died, I didn't have enough income to pay for this place or all the other bills I had accumulated because of my wife's illness," Bambas said.

He explained that he ultimately had to sell his house and return to work, first working at a hardware store and latterly at Meijer.

“It wasn't hard for me to do it because I knew I had to do it,” Bambas said. "I'm fortunate God gave me a good enough body to be strong enough to stand there for eight, eight-and-a-half hours a day."

In an email to The Independent, GM suggested Bambas' hadn't entirely lost his pension as he put it in the viral video.

A spokesperson for the car manufacturer said: “Mr Bambas’ personal story is deeply moving, and it’s wonderful to see the outpouring of support for him. We are grateful for what he has contributed to GM and to our country. While we don't share details about individuals, in 2012 salaried GM retirees who were receiving monthly pension payments were given several options, including continuation of monthly lifetime payments or a lump sum payout, if they preferred. Additionally, starting in 2008, retirees older than 65 receive a $300 monthly lifetime payment for supplemental Medicare coverage.”

In 2012 GM regained its position as the world's largest automaker by sales just three years on from its 2009 bankruptcy.

For Bambas, the recognition has come as a surprise. “It came out of the clear blue – I really truly mean that,” Bambas said.

The crowdfunder is still open and accumulating funds; meanwhile, according to reports, Bambas is currently unaware of the scale of the money pouring in to support him.