ATLANTA — A warehouse supervisor for Mercedes-Benz Stadium lost his home in a fire earlier this year. One thing that could help Lloyd Foster is for sports to return.
Foster’s home burned to the ground on February 17. The house that was in his family for years, was gone in 45 minutes.The fire also happened at the worst possible time - right before the coronavirus outbreak.
“Then by late February, the coronavirus had taken off,” said Foster.
“I have to rebuild everything. I have an 86-year-old mother, I have four children -three teenagers and one pre-teen - and everyone is looking at me.”
The Benz warehouse supervisor helped build the Atlanta staple that houses hundreds of sporting events every year.
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“As far as the impact on the people that work there, it’s horrifying. We thrive off people being able to congregate together," he said.
The sports world hiatus reaches far beyond coaches, athletes and team staff. It includes the thousands of workers, like Foster, now in limbo with no sporting events to work for.
However, Falcons owner Arthur Blank, has been helping out.
“For the first few weeks he’s been paying the people’s salaries for everyone in the building that was working. Once that’s over we are to apply for unemployment," Foster said.
A GoFundMe was made to help Lloyd raise money for the rebuild of his home.
“Ever since the fire I’m up every day trying to move forward to figure out a better way for me and my family.”
Despite everything happening right now, he shares a message of hope and perseverance.
“As human beings we have always been through tremendous crisis, we’ve always overcame. The ones that overcome it are the ones that are strong. You can never give up, no matter what," he said.
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