Jhaqueil Reagan an 18-year old didn’t let an early morning ice storm get in his way for a job interview at a local Dairy Queen in Indianapolis, Indiana. Along the route after three miles he stopped to ask a gentleman just how far it was to the fast food restaurant. The answer between six and seven miles and got advised to take the bus for the trip.
Reagan didn’t have money for the bus fare and proceeded to continue on foot. That’s when Art Bouvier who had given the directions spotted him again while driving to get coffee with his wife. He pulled over and offered Jhaqueil a ride in which he accepted.
With the determination that he showed Bouvier said “I’m thinking to myself, here’s a kid walking almost 10 miles in the ice and slush and snow for the hope of a job at minimum wage. ‘That’s the kind of story your parents used to tell, my parents used to tell, up both ways in the snow.” (Indiana’s minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.)
Art the owner of Papa Roux a Cajun restaurant got his phone number before. Later on he decided to call and offer a job at the restaurant and he accepted, which nearly doubled what he would have made at the Dairy Queen. Reagan response “it’s crazy. I don’t even know. It’s really crazy, my heart’s just racing right now. I’m just too excited, just excited to start.”
Jhaqueil dropped out of high school after his mother died two years and supports his brother and sister. He did earn his GED recently and is looking for an apartment close to work.
Indy Go which is the public transportation administration has also given him a year’s supply of bus passes.