Town Steps Up To Help Homeless Teen Who Biked 6 Hours To Register For College

Homeless teen found sleeping in tent on college campus after he biked 6 hours to register

Fred Barley is a 19-year-old biology major from Conyers, Georgia. He’s also homeless. Last weekend he hopped on his little brother’s bike with two duffel bags carrying two gallons of water and everything he owned and biked six hours in the Georgia heat to register for his second semester of classes.

Once he registered, he knew he would have no where to stay until the dorms opened in two weeks, so he pitched a tent in some bushes on campus. WSB-reports that last Saturday Barley had just returned to his tent after a day of job hunting when officers responded to a report of a man asleep in a tent on campus.

The officers told him to come out with his hands up, but once he explained what he was doing, they reacted in a way he wasn’t expecting. Barley told WSB-TV, “He was so understanding and he said, ‘I definitely applaud you for doing this. We can’t allow you to stay here, but I have somewhere you can stay.’” The officers took Barley to a motel and paid for two nights’ lodging.

A Barnesville, Georgia, woman, Casey Blaney, heard Barley’s story and posted it on a community Facebook page and hundreds of residents stepped up to help. The hotel discounted Barney’s nights until the 18th, and Blaney stepped up to pay the balance. The campus is allowing Barney early admission to the dorms and he got help finding a job in a local pizzeria.

People have donated clothes, school supplies, shoes, a new bike and they are working to get him a car. Blaney created a Facebook page called Success For Fred and also started a GoFundMe page that’s over $70,000 in two days.

Imagine biking six hours on a 20-inch kid’s bike to register for college. That’s the drive that’s inspired so many people in one Georgia town and beyond to donate their time, efforts, and money to help one person succeed. The story is going viral because we all need to be remembered that inside each person is a dream we know nothing about. Imagine the way the world would change if everyone approached each other with openness, acceptance, and love that’s being exhibited in this one story.

It only takes one act of kindness to start a landslide of positive actions. This is proof.