Donors are raising money for the woman who saved a mentally disabled man who became lost outside her home during the historic blizzard over the Christmas weekend in Buffalo, New York.
As of Thursday afternoon, around 5,000 people have raised over $150,000 for Sha’Kyra Aughtry via GoFundMe after she helped save Joe White from nearly dying in the freezing temperatures outside.
“Without [Sha’Kyra’s] generous spirit and fierce determination to get Joe help, my friend would be dead,” wrote Chris Dearing, the organizer of the GoFundMe page and a friend of White’s.
Early in the morning on Christmas Eve, Aughtry heard someone crying outside her home and found White stuck in a snowbank. After Aughtry’s boyfriend brought White inside, they realized he was so frozen that they needed to cut his socks off, use a blow dryer to dry his pants that were stuck to his legs, and cut the straps off a bag he was holding in his hand, according to local blogger Kimberly Larussa.
Aughtry helped White warm up and recover and allowed him to stay the night. However, on Christmas Day, White’s hands were becoming so severely frostbitten that the Buffalo mother of three knew he needed professional medical attention immediately.
With no emergency officials able to respond immediately because of the severe winter conditions, Aughtry created a Facebook live stream and desperately asked anyone for help.
Thankfully, a group of men heard her pleas and drove to her home to pick up White and bring him to the hospital.
Despite suffering from fourth-degree frostbite, White’s family says he is resting comfortably and is hoping for the best.
White’s employer, Ray Barker, told CNN he believes he got lost in the blizzard after he left his group home, thinking he needed to go to work at the North Park Theater–where he has been employed for 30 years–despite having the day off.
Although Aughtry helped White without thinking of being publicly acknowledged, Dearing wanted to create the GoFundMe page because he believed she deserved to be recognized for her heroic actions.
“Sha’Kyra did all of this without any thought of reward, but she deserves one, and so does her family,” Dearing said. “She’s a hard-working young mother, and I want to show her at least a fraction of the support she gave my friend Joe.”
Several other GoFundMe donors wrote messages that praised Aughtry for her selfless actions over the Christmas weekend.
“This was a beautiful act of kindness that should be celebrated and emulated,” wrote donor James Jones. “Bless this sweet girl!”
“I believe you are an angel. You and your husband are inspiring and we need stories like this in the world to inspire love and compassion where we are lacking it today,” wrote Bridget Mara.
You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.
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