MILWAUKEE — It was just a regular day for Shamkia Anderson, a bus driver for the Milwaukee County Transit System. That is until she met 18-year-old Fareon King.
"I didn't know if he was in need or not, I did it because that's what I wanted to do and I wanted to send a message. He was very respectful, very humble," said Anderson.
Fareon was making his way to work at Subway when he realized he didn't have enough money to pay the bus fare.
"I told her I only had 65 cents," said King.
However, Shamika says there was just something that touched her about Fareon doing what he needed to in order to get to work, that she ended up letting him ride anyway.
"Unfortunately, a lot of the youth are stealing cars, robbing, killing, and it humbled me that he's trying to be different," said Anderson.
"I was very grateful, like thank you for letting me ride the bus. Because most bus drivers either kick me off," said King.
But the story doesn't stop there. After dropping off Fareon at work, Shamika wanted to do something extra special for him.
"It just humbled me and I wanted to help him," said Anderson.
That's when Shamika decided to surprise Fareon with a bus pass in order to help him to continue to get to work.
"She's like well I have this M card for you, it's a two-week pass. To have somebody that I don't know take time out of their day to come over all the way over here and help me out, that's kind of a great feeling," said King.
After sharing his story on her Facebook page, Shamika's post went viral - and inspired others to help Fareon out as well.
"They were able to cash app him everything that they wanted to bless him with. I had a County and Executive reach out about providing some type of transportation for six months for Fareon," said Anderson.
Shamika adds that she also used this as an opportunity to send a message to other youth to remind them to keep working hard and stay on a straight path
"Eventually, there will always be a reward for trying to be positive and trying to do the right thing," said Anderson.
