Georgia Teachers Surprise School Custodian With New Car

Chris Jackson, the head custodian at Unity Grove Elementary School in Locust Grove, Georgia, had been walking to work every day before two teachers teamed up to raise the money for a new car. 

“That’s not unusual for our school,” Principal Anne Wilson told Fox News. “Any time we know of a need, people just come flooding to help … I’ve been here 20 years as principal and it’s always been that way.”

“People unify around each other, around people in times of need and in times of joy,” continued Wilson. “It’s a real blessing to work here.”

The touching moment when the teachers surprised Jackson with the car was shared to Facebook and has since gone viral. Jackson appears stunned and says, “Thank you. Oh my stars, there is a God. I never would have dreamed of something like this. Thank you all.”

The video has garnered over 74k likes and has been viewed over 2.2 million times. 

Back in June, special education teacher Jodi Combs and first grade teacher Megan MacDonald found out that Jackson had “fallen on some hard times.”

“Chris is one of those co-workers that whatever you need, he’s going to make it happen,” Chris said. “The kids adore him, the teachers adore him. And he works so very hard.”

Teachers at Unity Grove and other members of the community came together to raise approximately $1,000. They gave Jackson most of that money but saved some to begin saving to buy him a car. “We kept some of those original funds to be able to help Chris when he did find a car, be able to get his tag and insurance and all of those things that go with it,” Combs said.

When MacDonal learned that one of her friends was selling their Chevy Impala, she texted Combs, “Let’s make this happen for Chris.”

The teachers were able to raise the money in mere hours. “We were completely blown away,” said Combs. “Everything fell into place.”

Combs and MacDonald were able to get Jackson the title to the car, his tag and cover some of his insurance – thanks to the money they raised. After the video went viral on Facebook, someone paid for Jackson’s car insurance for a full year.

“I want people to know that this is not just me or this is not just one teacher,” Combs said. “This is a whole lot of people that have huge hearts that came together to make this happen.”

Image source: Fox 5 Atlanta