Teacher aims for selfless act to encourage more of same

Ivan Loza, 27, likes watching YouTube videos by MrBeast, David Dobrik and others, as they give away thousands of dollars and pricey gifts to strangers.

It gave him an idea: Might a video of himself using most of his $600 stimulus check — the second he has received — to help a homeless person and inspire others to share some of theirs?

Loza, a preschool teacher at John F. Peeler Elementary School in Oak Cliff, Texas, and a licensed real estate agent, adds, “I felt it a little unfair that I received a stimulus check even though I still have my steady teacher salary.”

While scouting downtown Dallas for people who appeared to be without homes, Loza and his friend Adam Wigfall spotted Macario Gonzales Jr. sitting on a bench with his head down, crying.

Gonzales told them that he was crying because it was around the anniversary of his parents’ deaths and that he had been sleeping on the streets for over a year. He accepted their offer but fretted in the car.

“At first I was kind of scared and thought they were playing a joke,” Gonzales says. “It was a wonderful thing what those two young boys did, what Ivan did. It was a nice thing.”

Gonzales, it turned out, had attended the same school as Loza, and Loza had coincidentally set the day’s schedule in that exact area.

Loza and Wigfall took Gonzales to get a haircut, bought him meals, clothes and some toiletries and other supplies. They also paid for him to stay for a week at a motel.

PEXELS