The fundraiser has already exceeded its goal by $20,000.
Yesterday, Michaelangelo Mosqueda created a GoFundMe to help Don Rosario, a 70-year-old paleta vendor retire with a goal of $10,000. In less than 24 hours, the donations have exceeded the target goal by a factor of three times!
Over the weekend, a video went viral that showed Rosario selling ice cream and paletas around the South Side of Chicago on Father’s Day. In response to seeing the 70-year-old working on Father’s Day, Michaelangelo Mosqueda bought all of his paletas so that Rosario could go home and spend the day with his family. The emotional interaction has been viewed over 5 million times on TikTok.
@miklo_98Buying all the paletas from the ##PaletaMan so he can go home and relax on Father’s Day 🥺 ##vivalaraza ##MakeSomeoneSmile ##essential
Going a step further, Mosqueda started a GoFundMe account on behalf of Rosario, so that Rosario could retire:
“The funds that we are raising will be used to help Don Rosario retire. The money raised will hopefully allow him to no longer have to work in the heat. I intend to withdraw the money and personally deliver it to him,” Mosqueda wrote on the GoFundMe page.
Since the page was created yesterday, over 1,500 people have donated to Rosario’s retirement fund.
This is not the first time citizens have come together to help out local vendors. After the Chi-town folk hero, Tamale Guy (AKA Claudio Velez), had to shutter his business upon being hit with a cease-and-desist, the community came together and raised over $30,000 on his behalf.
Let’s just hope Mosqueda captures Rosario’s reaction when he learns that he can safely retire.
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