Beau Guyott walked 417 miles from his home in South Florida to Tallahassee in an effort to bring awareness to the unemployment issues which have plagued Florida amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Guyott, a former hotel employee, started his trek because his unemployment benefits have been unfulfilled since he applied in March.
The journey, which lasted four weeks, stemmed from a myriad of problems for Guyott from getting his initial unemployment claim rejected to simply being unable to get in contact with anyone to explain the delays.
The pandemic has caused Guyott and many other Florida residents to be laid off from their jobs. The massive influx of unemployment claims have seemingly overwhelmed the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, which issues the benefits of those who are jobless.
According to the Herald-Tribune, the DEO had received over 2 million unemployment applications and paid about 779,000 of the claims, leaving another roughly 784,000 applicants waiting to receive their benefits.
Trey Avant is a newsroom writer for the Boca Raton Tribune. For information regarding this or other stories, email trey@bocaratontribune.com or tweet him @TreyAvant3.