Johnny has started the process of getting his paperwork replaced, as he’s currently without identification or Veteran’s Affairs papers, McClure said. He hopes to get a job at the Amazon warehouse in Robbinsville, and down the road, hopes to take the test to become recertified as a paramedic in Pennsylvania or New Jersey.
And McClure and D’Amico are confident they can get him started on that path soon, hoping to place him in a room to rent in an apartment within two weeks as they continue to fundraise.
“When I still look at (the GoFundMe), it blows my mind,” McClure said. “It’s actually going to happen for him.”
Johnny is both awe-struck and humbled by this grand display of human kindness and the power of empathy. But, he doesn’t want to keep all of the money for himself. You guessed it! He wants to use the majority of it to help other homeless veterans!
Marine Corps vet Johnny Bobbitt said he’s been ‘overwhelmed’ by the generosity of strangers after Kate McClure’s fundraising campaign smashed its initial $10,000 target. Donations currently stand at more than $360,000 as money continues to pour in to help Bobbitt get back on his feet.
Bobbitt was reunited with McClure on Good Morning America on Sunday where he pledged to pay forward his donations to help others.
‘That’s how I got the money to start with, from other people,’ he said. ‘[I have to] return the favor. I can’t constantly take and not give back.’
‘This money was given to help me. Why not help other people in similar situations or people that are actively helping other people in different situations?’ he added. ‘Everybody out there is facing some kind of struggle, so if I can touch their life, the way mine was touched, [it’d be] an amazing feeling,’ Bobbitt said. ‘I want to feel the feeling on the opposite end.’
Here is the sad part. Johnny also suffers from drug addiction.
All the outside help and money in the world isn’t really powerful enough to fix anything UNTIL the person themselves decides to change.
Bobbitt encountered money problems, before turning to drugs and having several run-ins with the law.
He told McClure and D’Amico that he wants to live in Robbinsville, New Jersey and work at the Amazon warehouse.
‘He just needs a push in the right direction. I can’t imagine how hard it is. He’s from the Carolinas. He’s a thousand miles from home with nothing, nobody. Things probably snowballed to where he’s living under a bridge,’ D’Amico said.
‘He doesn’t want to be on the streets anymore. He wants to be a functioning member of society and not be sitting on a guard rail in Philadelphia.
‘He knows where he’s at and he knows what he has to do to dig himself out.
As of the GMA interview, it did not appear as though Johnny had yet to have kicked the rehabilitating habit. But, it is a journey and he has everything else lining-up to help him along the way!
McClure said she had planned to use any donations on getting Bobbitt his first and last month rent on an apartment, a car and at least four to six months worth of living expenses.
‘He is very interested in finding a job and I believe that with a place to be able to clean up every night and get a good night’s rest, his life can get back to being normal,’ she wrote.
Bobbitt said that he also planned on buying a used truck but didn’t want to rush into anything.
‘I want to change my life, but you know it just happened,’ he said. ‘I need to time to figure it all out.’
McClure has also arranged meetings with a financial planner and a lawyer to help the veteran.
‘I just want to do the right thing,’ Bobbitt added.
Source: Miami Herald, Daily Mail, Fox News
