“This has been a blessing to me,” Hamilton told the Advocate. “I have been worrying about how I was going to pay my house off. I am grateful for what God has done and has led them to do for me.”

LSU Fraternity Brothers Pay Off Former House Cook’s Mortgage for 74th Birthday

Mario Villafuerte/Getty Images

KATHERINE RODRIGUEZ

24 Apr 2021614

2:31

Fraternity brothers at Louisiana State University (LSU) have always had fond memories of their fraternity house cook, so when they realized she was working two jobs to pay off her home mortgage, they decided to pay it forward.

Phi Gamma Delta alumni realized their former cook, Jessie Hamilton, was working two jobs to pay off her home mortgage and decided to do something to help.

The fraternity brothers surprised her with $51,765 in time for her 74th birthday in an April 3 celebration they called “Jesse Hamilton Day,” the Advocate reported.

“They were my kids. They still are,” Hamilton told the Washington Post. “They used to tell me they loved me, and now, they’ve proved it.”

During her time at the fraternity house between 1982 and 1996, Hamilton, a single mother of three, would begin her day at 4:00 a.m. to make it to campus in time to serve the boys breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

She was also there to listen whenever one of the boys wanted to talk and made herself available to take them to the grocery store or to doctor’s appointments.

“I enjoyed doing it. They loved my cooking,” Hamilton told the Post. “I was always there to talk things through with them. They’d come in the kitchen and sit on top of the counter and tell me their problems.”

Hamilton stayed in touch with several of the brothers over the years, including Andrew Fusaiotti, 52.

Fusaiotti, who owns a car dealership in Mobile, Alabama, checked in on Hamilton at the start of the pandemic and was disappointed to hear she was still working two jobs — one as a cook at a country club and one as a cleaner at the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport.

Speaking with her children, he found out she had 16 years to go on a 30-year mortgage and needed to pay off the $45,000 balance.

Soon, Fusaiotti got his fraternity brothers on board and got 91 of them to donate an average of $560.

Fusaiotti and his brothers gave Hamilton a check to cover the mortgage, as well as a second check for $6,675 for personal expenses.

“This has been a blessing to me,” Hamilton told the Advocate. “I have been worrying about how I was going to pay my house off. I am grateful for what God has done and has led them to do for me.”

Student Raises More Than $55,000 for Teacher Living Out of His Car

Mr. V / Go Fund Me

KATHERINE RODRIGUEZ

13 Apr 2021306

2:34

A former substitute teacher who fell on hard times and was living out of his car got help from one of his former students in the best way possible.

Jose Villarruel, 77, who goes by the nickname Mr. V, worked as a substitute teacher in California for decades. Steven Nava, a former student, remembered meeting Mr. V in 2014 during his freshman year of high school, USA Today reported.

“He was a pretty cool teacher, and like, you know, he wasn’t like those sorts of substitute teachers that would just take attendance and then, you know, just sit and have the whole class go crazy,” said Nava. “He was, like really passionate about making sure everybody, you know, is actually getting something out of the whole lecture.”

After Nava graduated high school, he began noticing Mr. V in his neighborhood.

“I really honestly never got the impression that, you know, he was homeless or anything. And then until like now this year, I started seeing him more frequently,” Nava said.

At first, Nava spotted Mr. V at the fast-food joint near where he went to college. Then, Nava noticed Mr. V’s car would be parked in his neighborhood each morning when he went to work.

What Nava did not know is that Mr. V had been living out of his car for eight years.

When the pandemic forced many businesses and schools to close and operate remotely, Villarruel decided to resign from his substitute teaching job so he could collect his pension, KTTV reported.

The money from his pension was not enough for him to sustain himself.

Villarruel told Nava about his situation, prompting Nava to give him $300 and a hotel room. Nava was able to locate temporary housing for Villarruel, but he wanted to do more for his beloved teacher.

So Nava created a GoFundMe to help his teacher. The first campaign raised $27,480. Nava’s GoFundMe got a lot of attention from the media, former students, and local officials.

So after Nava and the community gathered to present him with the first $27,000 check, Nava created another GoFundMe page called “Keep Mr. V Moving.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, the page raised more than $27,000, bringing the grand total of money raised for Villarruel to more than $55,000.

Villarruel plans to use the money to get a better living situation.