BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 On Thursday, May 21, about 50 people lined up at the Bluffs in Bakersfield, each hoping to walk away with a cash prize.<\/p>\n
Inside a lock box sat $200. The crowd was given a hint about the four-number code \u2014 but not the order. Every person got 2 chances to guess.<\/p>\n
The man running the giveaway creates content on a social media page called “Built Wasco.<\/a>” He wants to keep his identity private so the focus stays on the community, not himself.<\/p>\n “It all started as an act of kindness,” he said.<\/p>\n He started earlier this year with a small gift hidden somewhere in Wasco.<\/p>\n “I’m going to get 10 dollars, just leave it somewhere, maybe it will make someone’s day, you know? Make someone smile,” he said.<\/p>\n That idea took off. Now, more than 10,000 people follow his Facebook page, waiting to see where the next money drop will happen. Using money from his videos, his T-shirt business \u2014 Flores Apparel <\/a>\u2014 and even his own paycheck, he says he’s given away about $1,000 so far.<\/p>\n The man behind Built Wasco says there’s a personal reason he continues doing this.<\/p>\n “The most common question is just, ‘why? Like why do you do it?’ Back in the day, I had cancer in 2018, so I was like, ‘you know what\u2026 I made it, I survived, I just want to give back to the community,'” he said.<\/p>\n For many who show up, it’s about more than just the money.<\/p>\n “I get messages saying, ‘hey, thank you for getting my husband off the couch, the kids love it’. Most of the time, they give the money to their kids,” he said.<\/p>\n Joell Smith, a previous winner of the giveaway, says the events bring people together.<\/p>\n “You see it bringing a lot of people together. Everybody is brainstorming together, and as a community, we all talk to each other and see what the code might be,” Smith said.<\/p>\n The Built Wasco founder says as his following continues to grow, so will the giveaways.<\/p>\n Those who want to support the Built Wasco<\/a> mission can do so through Flores Apparel<\/a> or by reaching out through his social media page.<\/p>\n This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n Stay in Touch with Us Anytime, Anywhere:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 On Thursday, May 21, about 50 people lined up at the Bluffs in Bakersfield,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,155,153,152,162],"class_list":["post-341610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-downtown","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-kern-county-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}