Meet Fred Barley.
A 19-year old college student we can all take a lesson from. Barley is biology major attending Gorden State College in Barnesville, GA who is also homeless. When it came time to register for his classes in the fall, he biked from Conyers to Barnesville. This took him six hours. Barley decided to pitch a tent by some bushes inside the school with very little food and water with him, hoping to stay for just a couple more weeks until dorms were available. After spending the day looking for a job, he returned to his tent for night. Police officers showed up on campus, outside of the tent demanding Barley come out with his hands up. The officers were amazed when Barley told them his story. Officer Dicky Carreker was quoted saying, “I could tell he was a good kid who had been dealt a bad hand.” The officers agreed that a tent wasn’t the best place for him to stay. They paid for him to stay two nights in a motel, a major upgrade from the tent.
Since then, Fred now has a place to stay until the school opens thanks to motel owner. He has a job at a local pizza joint, and, Barley’s boss, Casey Blaney, started a GoFund Me page which has raised over $180,000, and a Facebook page to support him and his studies.
Both of these links can be found below here and here.
It’s amazing how often we take our own life for granted. Before you start to complain about how hard your life is, think of Fred. We need more officers like Dicky Carreker and more people like Fred Barley.
