TEMPE — Inside a Tempe Home Depot, Merchandising Execution Associate Mike Walter is feeling the love.
“You know not to sound all goofy, but this store is all about family,” said Walter. “You know again, it’s not about the company looking good, I mean these people are doing things that are like from the heart,”
It’s been a rough year for the man responsible for making the store look great every day. His car required a costly repair, then his air conditioning unit went out in his home followed, by his water heater. On top of all that, a recent doctor's appointment revealed something worse.
“We know they’re going to do chemo, but we don’t know if they’re going to do surgery first,” said Walter.
Walter was recently diagnosed with Lymphoma. It's his second bout with the disease and yet another item on the list of things he couldn’t afford to fix.
“When you don’t have the money to pay for it and pay for the treatments, it does scare ya,” said Walter.
Despite keeping his troubles to himself, word got out.
“It was kind of devastating because he didn’t show it, he didn’t show any of it,” said one colleague.
It didn’t take long for this company and his coworkers to rally around one of their own.
“We all are here as a work family, we want to help him as much as we can,” said Cynthia Benavides.
It started with Walter being gifted a portable A/C unit. Then a new water heater. They’re hosting fundraising potlucks and other donation drives. Many are coming forward and sharing how cancer has touched them too.
“Seriously I have people that call me at night now, they all have their own stories, but it means everything to me,” said Walter.
“This is one of those things where it’s just the right thing to do,” said District Execution Manager Mark McKinnon.
It’s a gesture that's sending a heartfelt message to Walter that he won’t need to carry these heavy burdens alone.
“Every single member of my upper management, people in my store, the love that I get from this store is hard to believe,” said Walter.
A GoFundMe has also been set up for Walter to help him in his fight against cancer.