The world can be a dark and dangerous place, but selflessness has the power to prevail in the most heartbreaking of circumstances. Whether it’s putting another life before your own, making someone else’s dreams come true, or paying forward random acts of kindness, everyday heroes are all around us. Every week, we take the opportunity to celebrate the most extraordinary ordinary people from all over the world who make our little blue dot a better place. Welcome to Hero of the Week.

Sometimes it’s easy to feel like all our hard work doesn’t pay off. But there’s times the universe (or our boss!) gives us a reminder our efforts are actually noticed and appreciated.

bellhops-ceo-gifts-employee-new-car

Walter Carr, an Alabama college student, drove a 2003 Nissan Altima, but as bad luck would have it, the car broke down the night he was supposed to start a new job with Bellhops Moving company. Carr couldn’t get someone to give him a lift to work the next morning, but he refused to give up, and used Google Maps to walk from his location at midnight to his job by 8 a.m. Friday. It took a whopping seven hours, but he made it, NY Post reports.

Carr walked for hours before Pelham police spotted him around 4 a.m. Impressed with his perseverance, they treated him to breakfast and dropped him off at the home of his first customer Jenny Lamey.

Lamey said Carr showed no sign of his bad night while at the job. In a Facebook post she shared: “I just can’t tell you how touched I was by Walter and his journey. He is humble and kind and cheerful and he had big dreams! He is hardworking and tough.”

Lamey started a GoFundMe page to help Walter with his car troubles, but it won’t matter now. Bellhops CEO Luke Marklin heard what happened and drove from Tennessee to Alabama on Monday to gift Carr with a brand new 2014 Ford Escape.

Not bad at all.

Boss of the year? Yes, we’d say so! And hard work does pay off.