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Even nearly $1 million in donations can’t get 78-year-old DoorDash driver Richard Pulley to retire.
Pulley received the life-changing check that totaled $965,868 on Friday — just weeks after a viral video showed him carefully climbing steps to deliver a Starbucks order in Eastern Tennessee.
The video, shared by customer Brittany Smith, captured Pulley on her Ring doorbell going above and beyond on his deliveries.
It quickly went viral and inspired strangers to pour into the massive fundraiser aimed at giving Pulley and his wife Brenda, who often tags along on his deliveries, a break from bills and medical costs.
“My wife was working for an insurance company and they ended up letting her go,” Pulley told TODAY.com, adding that even with Social Security, they struggled to pay for her meds and their bills.
“When she left, it really put a pinch on us to pay bills. I had gotten lazy. You know, when we get 65 and retire … I wasn’t doing a lot, but all of a sudden, I had to get to work.”
Pulley dove headfirst into gig work, completing nearly 6,000 DoorDash orders, often with Brenda riding shotgun.
The work gave him purpose and a reason to keep moving, even as viral fame caught up with him.
“The last couple of shifts have worked out hard because people stop and take pictures with me and all sorts of things,” he said. “I’ll get back to work in the next few days.”
Despite the overwhelming generosity of strangers, Pulley says the work itself is part of why he keeps going.
“They’ve set my wife and I up so that we can live a more comfortable life, but after a week or two of this and it cools down, we’ll get back to work because I feel good being useful,” he said.
The fundraiser, titled “Give Richard a Chance to Rest Again,” has drawn more than 32,000 donations, including a $20,000 contribution from DoorDash CEO Tony Xu, who praised Pulley for his thousands of deliveries.
Smith, who helped spark the campaign, joined the couple at a local burger joint last week to show them the impact of the donations.
Married for over 56 years, the Pulleys were left stunned by the outpouring of generosity.
“It’s just really difficult to believe that there’s that many people that are that generous to try to help us,” Pulley told WSMV. “It’s taking a lot of pressure off us and making life livable once again.”
Brenda added, “Sometimes you look at all the bills you need to pay … if [you] don’t, you going to end up in the hospital with something even more expensive.”
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