Woman spots ice cream vendor pushing heavy freezer in sweltering heat — her one simple gesture changed the man's life

A small gesture can make a person feel that they have their community's love and support. A woman made sure that a local ice cream vendor received all possible support after she noticed that the man was dragging his heavy ice cream cart in the Florida heat. She turned around to give the man some money. The person, Beryenis Lopez, who goes by @wavyybergy1 on TikTok, shared a video of the man pushing the cart and many local people could recognize him in the comments. So she decided to take the whole thing a step further.

"I don't understand how there could be so much hate in the world right now," the text overlay read as the woman noticed the vendor with his cart from her car window. She turned around and went up to the man to offer him some money. He asked her which flavor of ice cream she would like. She didn't want any and the man, Don Tomas, realized that the money was for him as the woman drove away. He waved at her while trying to contain his smile. The caption read, "It made me so emotional to see this man walk in the heat with his little ice cream trailer. Help your local vendors, they're just trying to make it by." The video received more than 4.1 million views and over 948,700 likes.

People absolutely loved the generosity of the woman and the kindness of the ice cream vendor. @doraibarra0 wrote, "He’s such a pure soul. My kids grew up buying ice cream from him and he still remembers them. He would let them get ice cream without money and wait until my pay day so they could enjoy ice cream with all the other children." @nbreezy80 commented, "My heart can’t take anymore hate. Look at him... innocently minding his business… working…humble… not out there holding a sign, or begging to people for money… not causing chaos…" @doobig2 remarked, "I love how older Mexican men always dress so nice. My grandpa was 80, working on the backyard with the same fit as this man, nowhere to go but just at home."

@briseidavv expressed, "Stop. I grew up buying ice cream from him and ever since, I never heard from him, and look, he’s still selling ice cream." @rosesssx98 suggested, "Can we start him a GoFundMe? I’ve seen him all around PC the last couple of years." Lopez ended up starting a GoFundMe fundraiser for the man and it managed to raise $29,687 for him.

"I've created this GoFundMe in hopes we can raise enough money to give to him for transportation and maybe a new ice cream trailer," Lopez remarked. "I posted a video of Mr. Tomas on TikTok walking down the road with his ice cream truck in this Florida summer heat, so we decided to turn around and donate a few dollars. But what made it even more special was seeing how many people recognized him." She added that many people locally knew and loved the man for his hard work and dedication throughout the years. "He’s a beloved part of our community and he deserves to have better conditions." The man continued to work hard despite his age and everything that was going on.

You can follow Beryenis Lopez (@wavyybergy1) on TikTok for more lifestyle content.