Army veteran Ed Bambas, 88, is set to receive nearly $1.5 million in donations during a surprise ceremony at his workplace on Friday, following an outpouring of support that began after his story went viral earlier this week, as reported by The New York Post.
His son, Michael Bambas, said the life-changing amount will finally allow his father to retire after years of financial hardship.
Ed Bambas is an 88-year-old veteran who works as a cashier at a Meijer store in Brighton, Michigan. He suddenly became famous overnight when Samuel Weidenhofer shared Ed’s story to help raise money for his retirement. Ed retired from General Motors in 1999 but lost his pension… pic.twitter.com/I28T38awKx
— Mr Commonsense (@fopminui) December 4, 2025
Michael said his father remains unaware of the full sum raised on his behalf and has been deeply moved by the generosity shown by tens of thousands of donors.
“I know what this is going to mean to him and that it’s going to change his life immensely,” he told The New York Post on Wednesday.
“He’s finally going to enjoy life and not have to worry about, you know, where the next dollar is gonna have to come from.”
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The viral moment began when Australian influencer Samuel Wiedenhofer met Ed at a Meijer grocery store in Brighton, Michigan, where the veteran has been working full-time as a cashier to cover basic expenses.
Ed explained in a now widely viewed video that he retired from General Motors in 1999, but the company’s 2012 bankruptcy wiped out his pension.
The loss, combined with his late wife’s costly medical care, left him financially strained and forced to sell his home and property to stay afloat.
“The thing that hurt me the most was when my wife was really sick, and when they took the pension, they also took the health care coverage and all but $10,000 of my life insurance,” Ed said in the video.
Following his wife Joan’s death seven years ago, Ed returned to a 40-hour workweek. He has been employed at Meijer for the past five years.
“I’m fortunate God gave me a good enough body to be strong enough to stand here for eight, eight and a half hours a day,” he told WXYZ after the video began circulating.
Wiedenhofer launched a GoFundMe on Monday to help Ed retire.
NEW: Internet users raise over $1.2M for an 88-year-old US Army veteran to help him retire after his pension was wiped out.
Ed Bambas lost his wife 7 years ago and is now working 40 hours a week to make ends meet.
Bambas retired from General Motors in 1999, expecting to have… pic.twitter.com/tKkIys1rvT
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 3, 2025
By Wednesday night, the fundraiser had collected more than $1.443 million from nearly 50,000 donations representing more than 36,000 contributors, including musicians Charlie Puth and Russell Dickerson.
Michael said his father has not yet grasped what has happened. “He has no idea how much money is in the account. He has no clue what’s there. It’s going to be total shock to him,” he said.
A surprise ceremony will take place Friday night at the Brighton Meijer store, where Ed will be presented with an account containing the funds.
A local veterans group is also expected to honor him during the event. Michael said the support will lift a tremendous burden.
“Since my mom passed, I’ve been trying to help him where I can financially, so it’s going to be a major burden taken away,” he said. “He’s gonna have a lot of relief in all this.”
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