His Shift Starts at 4am. His Commute: an 11-Mile Walk

Trenton Lewis' co-workers have just remedied the commute, however, and given him a car
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 14, 2018 1:28 PM CST
Co-Workers Surprise Diligent Single Dad With Car
UPS signs are seen on trucks behind a barrier at a depot in London on June 17, 2011.   (AP Photo/Akira Suemori)

Trenton Lewis has never missed a shift and never been late for his 4am shift at a UPS facility in Little Rock, Ark., a dedication driven by his love for his 14-month-old daughter, Karmen, per CNN. His attendance is even more impressive when you consider his wakeup time and commute: Lewis rolls out of bed at midnight and then, as ABC News notes, "in the rain or cold, through some rough areas of town—he walks." And it's a 5.5-mile journey one way for the 21-year-old single dad, reports KXAN, adding that Lewis has been doing this now for seven months. Lewis tells KATV he didn't have a job when Karmen was born, but when she entered his life, "I knew I had to step up."

His pride kept him from mentioning his daily walk to co-workers, but Patricia Bryant, known as the "queen bee" of the UPS site, discovered Lewis' secret—and then, along with her husband, Kenneth, set out to find a way to make things easier for Lewis. They did so by pooling together nearly $2,000 from colleagues and using it to purchase a used Saturn for Lewis, which they presented to him at a gathering they told him was a "union meeting." "Those keys cannot be mine," he recalls thinking when they revealed the surprise, per KATV. His new leave time from home each morning: 3:30am, giving him a few more hours to sleep in. "I knew things were going to get better if I kept coming to work so, that's just what I did," Lewis tells KXAN. (More uplifting news stories.)

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