The Amount Of Money Boyz II Men Singer Raised For This Homeless Man May Make You Cry

Posted On : December 18, 2015
Nathan Morris and the homeless man he helped raise money for, Charles Gladden
Nathan Morris and the homeless man he helped raise money for, Charles Gladden

A while back, Boyz II Men singer, Nathan Morris, took it upon himself to ask the public for help in raising money for a homeless man by the name of Charles Gladden, after seeing a CNN interview on him. Gladden is actually employed in Washington D.C. as a cafeteria employee, but he still was having trouble affording the high cost of living and pay for his medical bills.

When Nathan saw the story on CNN, he did a very honorable thing for the Gladden- he made a public plea to his fans to help him out with raising some money to get Gladden on his feet and a roof over his head. Nathan promised to match the the $10,000 he was asking the public for, with an additional $10,000 out of his own pocket. The R&B crooner started a Go Fund Me page for Gladden and quickly exceeded his own expectations, when people began to donate money, which ultimately reached just over raised $24,000! Here are the rest of the details via CNN:

…When [Nathan Morris] saw CNN’s profile of Charles Gladden — a homeless man who serves senators by day in the Capitol cafeteria but sleeps on the streets at night — it struck a deep nerve.

“A friend of mine sent me a link to it. I saw it on my phone, probably about 3, 4 in the morning. And it just bothered me. It bothered me that someone in Charles’s situation would have to deal with something like this,” he said. “In the greatest country in the world, working in the one of the greatest buildings on the planet, that the people that he works for, who make all the decisions, (who) pass the bills and the laws and things that can help him, have not helped him,” Morris said.

So he acted, starting a crowdfunding site to raise money for Gladden. He said if he could raise $10,000 online, he would kick in another $10,000, which he called a start. Then, Morris got in his car and drove down to D.C. from his hometown of Philadelphia so he could meet Gladden.

When Gladden walked across the Capitol plaza and saw Morris waiting for him, the first thing the homeless 63-year-old man did was congratulate the singer for all of his success. “I appreciate you sir. You have no idea man,” Morris told Gladden as they embraced.

“It killed me to hear your story. I had to come up here, I had to meet you and I had to pull all my resources in to try to help take care of you, man,” Morris added. He took out his phone to show Gladden how much people had already donated. By then, the funding effort was only three days old, but had already raised more than $21,000.

homeless man2“Just from small donations — $20, $35, $10, $15 — and this is just people giving from the kindness of their heart,” Morris said, pointing to the website on his phone.

“That’s a good thing,” responded a near-speechless Gladden. The Boyz II Men singer said his first priority is getting Gladden off the street.

“Try to get him back on his feet. You know, try to take some of the burden off him having to worry about where he’s going to sleep at night,” explained Morris.

When Gladden first told us about his story, CNN asked why he didn’t go to a homeless shelter instead of sleeping at a D.C. metro stop each night. He told CNN shelters are like a “prison,” and unsafe. Gladden, a diabetic, said his insulin had been stolen in homeless shelters by people hoping to use it to get high.

But Morris told Gladden about a halfway house of sorts he found, run by the Coalition for the Homeless, geared for men just like Gladden — people who have jobs but have trouble saving enough money to get a place to live.

Morris says the facility requires those who come to save 30% of their income while they stay there. He said he hoped to use the funds raised to help Gladden to pay that 30%.

boyz-II-men-youngIt’s beautiful seeing Nathan Morris give back. He and his Boyz II Men brothers have sold millions, traveled the world, touched the lives of many, but yet he never forgot what it was like being that struggling artist from Philly. We tip our hats to Nathan and thank him for refreshing news in the new aged era of social media beefs.

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