Alabama Waffle House employees come together to help co-worker attend his graduation
Timothy Harrison didn’t have a ride to his graduation, tickets or cap and gown. However, that didn’t stop one of his co-workers at Waffle House in Center Point, Alabama from making sure he got to walk across the stage. Harrison has been working at Waffle House for a little over a month while finishing his senior year at Woodlawn High School in Birmingham according to WVTM 13, an NBC affiliate.
“I had people want to see me succeed, so it kind made me excited,” Harrison said. On May 27, Woodlawn High School held their commencement across town at Birmingham CrossPlex. Harrison didn’t have a ride to the graduation so instead he headed to work.
“That’s when I said why aren’t you going to graduation?” Cedric Hampton Harrison’s manager said at Waffle House. “And he said ‘I don’t want to miss work.’ So I was like, you’re going!”
“I thought you were supposed to graduate today?” Harrison’s co-worker Shantana Blevins said. “What do we need to do?”
The Waffle House team came together to buy Harrison dress clothing including slacks, tie and shirt. Once he put on the new clothes and his graduation robe, it was a great experience.
“When I put on clothes, that was a different feeling,” Harrison said. “I don’t even know the words. A million dollars? It was the best feeling.”
Blevins drove Timothy 20 miles across town to take the teen to his graduation. However, the story didn’t end with the graduation. Once Harrison’s story went viral, Lawson State Community College offered him a full scholarship, with books included.
“I really didn’t expect that to happen,” Harrison said. Harrison will now attend college in the fall.
“Now he can go to college and figure out what do in his life and we’re gonna help guide him,” Hampton, the Waffle House manager said.
Read more: