Success Story: Tyrone

Tyrone Gets His Title: Vehicles for Veterans Recipient

Tyrone left the grocery store and carefully loaded the handlebars of his bike with 3 bags on each side for perfect balance. Then guiding his bike through the hectic traffic, he arrived at the bus stop just as the bus pulled up. When the double doors opened, he quickly shifted the bags from his handlebars to his arms and began to lift his bicycle into the crowded bus. But it was not meant to be. Unfortunately, there is a 2 bike limit on the bus and two other cyclists had already boarded so there was no room for his bike. He had to step down, rebalance his groceries and his bike, back out of the closing doors, and wait 45 minutes for the next bus. It was going to be another one of those days.

As the rain began to fall, hundreds of cars passed by that bus stop, right by Tyrone, his groceries and his bicycle. “Someday”, he thought. “Someday” he too, would be able to drive a vehicle of his own and not worry about another door closing.

Tyrone is a United States Marine veteran who moved to Florida in 2004 to stay with friends while his wife was being treated for breast cancer. After she lost her battle in 2012, it has been a struggle for Tyrone, and when he was referred to Wheels of Success by the James A. Haley Veteran’s Hospital, he was homeless.

Tyrone was one of those veterans fortunate enough to be selected to take part in Operation Reveille on Veteran’s Day 2014. He was placed in an apartment rentfree and with no electricity bill for one year. He traveled to his job by bicycle and bus, working third shift as a customer service representative.

“Someday” came when Tyrone was handed the keys to his “new to him” vehicle from Wheels of Success at RACE 2015, thanks to funding from the Triad Foundation. Like so many others before him, determined to move forward but hindered by a lack of reliable transportation, the key to that car was also the key to Tyrone’s future.

Today, Tyrone has moved to the Orlando area, has a great career, a new wife and family and the title to his Wheels’ vehicle.

He is on the Road to Success.