A polaroid photo taken in 2018 with Brad Lancaster, Maison and Riley Cavaliere and Maison's parents.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED / Maison Cavaliere
July 08, 2020 - 7:00 AM
After hitchhiking to Kamloops from Halifax, YouTuber Brad Lancaster was expecting to spend the night in a hotel. Instead, he ran into a family at a Kamloops Starbucks that let him stay the night at their place, and they even bought him a bus ticket for the last leg of his journey.
Now, over a year later, their act of kindness has been featured in a TikTok video that has gained over 112,000 likes in six days.
Lancaster was filming his cross-Canada journey to highlight kindness and the power of human connection, and featured the eight episode series on his YouTube channel.
In October 2018, Lancaster met Maison and Riley Cavaliere, and Maison's mom at a Starbucks in Kamloops. Lancaster told them about his project and explained he was looking for a place to spend the night. They arranged for him to stay the night with them at Maison's parents' place.
"If our friends are passing through, my parents have always got a door open," Maison said.
Maison's mom made Lancaster her signature welcome basket with towels, soaps, snacks and drinks.
The next morning marked the 29th day of Lancaster's journey, and Maison dropped him off at the highway where he would hitchhike the last leg of his journey to Vancouver.
"I was mainly worried that he’d be out there a long time because it was so cold," Riley said. They told Lancaster to give them a call if he needed anything, as they didn't want to leave him stranded.
Lancaster couldn't catch a ride, so Maison's sister, who had heard the story, decided to buy him a bus ticket to Vancouver.
"He was so emotional, he cried right away," Maison said. "He was just so thankful."
By the end of his journey, Lancaster had traveled over 5,800 kilometres and gotten 38 rides.
"I finally got my last ride. It wasn’t technically a hitchhike, but it was a true act of kindness," Lancaster said in the video. "I don’t think there could have been a more fitting way to end this trip."
Maison and Riley didn't know the video would be on TikTok until their friends messaged them saying it had gone viral.
They were inspired to help Lancaster by acts of kindness from strangers that they encountered while traveling abroad.
"In our travels, we've met a few people along the way that have helped us out in really similar ways," Maison said. "It's nice to finally be able to pay those dues back."
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