Fund frozen for homeless teen who biked 50 miles to college
BARNESVILLE, Ga. - His story of how he rode his bike nearly 6 hours to get registered to classes at Gordon College went viral. The community rallied around Fred Barley after it was discovered the teen was homeless. A fund set up in his name raised about $200,000, but that account was flagged this week because of questions about his story. And until those questions are resolved, Barley may not see any of that money.
“This is not something he just arbitrarily made up to try to con thousands of people-- 5700 people donated to go fund me page. He could never ever thought that was going to happen,” said Debbie Adamson.
Adamson believed the young man she hired after hearing his inspirational story is not misleading the public. She said he's only 19 and has been thrown in a world he could never imagine.
“He’s being pulled in many directions. Many different people are telling him what to do,” said Adamson. “He doesn't know where to go or who to trust.”
In just 15 days, Barley went from being homeless to a celebrity after police found him living in a tent on campus. People heard his story and were inspired. The online account set up for him just kept growing.
Adamson said recently there was a disagreement over how to handle the money and that’s the reason the account got flagged.
“Whether the money is for him, they should get all of it, or whether it should go in a trust and leave it in there. Just an enormous amount of attention has come on the poor child,” said Adamson.
“Fred is safe. Fred didn't run off with the money. It's going into an education trust of some sort- he is going to Gordon College that's what really matters,” said Adamson.
It's GoFundMe's policy to freeze an account anytime questions are raised about the campaign. Once the issues are resolved the money will either go to Fred or back to the donors.
“It's a true story, he's a good guy, wants to go to school and we want to wish him well,” said Adamson.
Adamson said after this story she hopes the interest in Fred will die down so he can be a normal 19-year-old college student.