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Uber passenger's funding campaign gets Ellis Hill to Olympics to watch his son

Andrew Bucholtz
Uber passenger Liz Willock (L) started a successful GoFundMe campaign to get her driver, Ellis Hill (R), to Rio to watch his son Darrell compete in the Olympics. (GoFundMe.)

A connection made on an Uber ride wound up changing Ellis Hill's summer. Hill, the father of U.S. shot-putter Darrell Hill, was planning to watch the Olympics from his Pennsylvania home, but that all changed when he drove passenger Liz Willock. Willock was impressed to hear that Hill's son was competing for the U.S. team, but sad Hill couldn't afford to go himself. As Tiare Dunlap writes in People, that sparked her into action:

"When I told her about my son she was really amazed, but when she asked me if I was going over there to watch him, I said I really couldn't afford it," Hill, a retired bus driver, tells PEOPLE.

..."It was devastating to hear that," Willock tells PEOPLE. "Here's this wonderful man who has a close relationship with his son and I know any parent would want to see their son or daughter compete at the Olympics, but it was very understandable how that could be out of reach."

Then Willock had an idea. As a sales leader at a concierge service that arranges travel and accommodations for people seeking clinical trials around the world, she felt she had all the contacts and resources she needed to make Hill's trip happen.

"She asked me, 'If I could get you a ticket would you go?' " Hill recalls. "And I said, 'Oh my goodness I don't even know you!'"

"She said, 'No. I believe you and I were fated to meet and I'm going to try to make this happen,' " Hill continues.

Willock started a GoFundMe campaign the next day, and it raised $8,200, passing the $7,500 goal in just two days. Tweets from Darrell Hill and other athletes certainly helped:

Willock and Hill both told People the campaign's success boosted their faith in humanity:

"I was ecstatic," Hill says. "I feel really grateful and overcome by the knowledge that there are good people out there."

The campaign's success gave Willock the same feeling.

"There has been so much sadness and violence in the news lately and this really restored my faith in humanity," Willock says. "We had over 150 people contribute and I think Ellis knew maybe 10 of them. The rest were strangers."

That's a cool story, and it speaks to both the power of connections and the power of Olympic dreams. A lot of these athletes are spending more than they ever make on their training, so it's often hard for them to bring in family and friends to have the support that many professional athletes in well-paying sports enjoy. It's great to see that Willock was able to use her skills to help get Hill to Rio to cheer on his son, and it's awesome that so many people came together to make that a reality.