The hardworking teenager from Buffalo, New York, has been rewarded with a scholarship, a car, and a job offer from none other than the mayor himself after cleaning up the mess left behind by protesters.
18-year-old Antonio Gwynn Jr. had taken part in a peaceful protest on May 30 before returning home only to realize that violent riots had taken over the city.
Following the civil unrest, at around 2 am, Gwynn “felt disgusted” by the damage done to the city and embarked on a clean-up mission of his own.
And so, for ten hours, the teen had been cleaning up the mess and removing garbage, broken objects, and glass shards from the streets.
“I felt disgusted. My nerves were bad. They’re destroying a city that could actually be very beautiful,” he said in an interview with ABC 7.
“I went bought some trash bags, grabbed my broom and my dustpan and I just started. It was just me by myself. I just started riding up and down Bailey to see where stuff was destroyed so I can clean it up.”
As Gwynn explained, he had been cleaning alone for some ten hours before a group of volunteers led by Kalah Bishop joined him.
According to Bishop, it is “amazing” that an 18-year-old decided to clean other people’s mess all alone in the middle of the night.
Soon after Gwynn’s story and the pictures from the clean-up went viral, the boy was inundated with thanks and praise for his good deed.
While Good Samaritans were raising money for him via GoFundMe, Gwynn received a red Mustang from Matt Block who decided to give it to the teen for free.
Later on, Gwynn was also offered a full scholarship for Hutchinson Central Technical High School by Medaille College, a private institution.
On Saturday, Mayor Byron Brown had also reached out to the 18-year-old and offered him work at the buildings department. According to the mayor’s tweet, the teen agreed to accept the job after his graduation.
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Replaced!