EAST STROUDSBURG, MONROE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) – A Walmart in the Poconos is getting some negative attention. The company is letting go a long-time, popular employee with special needs because he can’t keep up with new demands the position requires. Now shoppers and people in the community are rallying behind the worker.

It’s not always easy to work in Walmart. Take it from a former employee.



“It’s hard to be enthusiastic every day at Walmart!” says Henry Schecker.



But nobody wears the company smile like greeter Daniel Ockenhouse. Almost everyone in town knows him.



“I mean I love what I do. Would I work all total 20 years for a place I didn’t?” says Ockenhouse.



Danny has cerebral palsy. In sunshine or snowstorm, five days a week, he gets in his motorized wheelchair and makes the two-mile trek to work.



“I remember like February 2015 he came in just covered in snow. Went right to work like it was nothing!” says Schecker.



Danny sometimes sleeps overnight in the store during bad weather so he doesn’t miss work the next day. But this is the dedicated employee’s final shift. Danny has been let go.



“I have poured my heart and soul into this company,” says Ockenhouse, with tears in his eyes.



East Stroudsburg is one of many Walmart’s in American starting a new program called “More at the Door”. The East Stroudsburg store switched it’s greeter position to “customer host”. It requires more work checking receipts and helping with returns.



“And I’m perfectly capable of doing that. And I tried to tell him that but he just wouldn’t listen,” says Ockenhouse.



It also requires lifting sometimes heavy objects. That’s something Danny can’t do.

A Walmart spokesperson says each greeter was offered another position at the store. Since Danny cannot lift the required 50 pounds, he felt forced to take a severance package.



The spokesperson adds, “It’s unfortunate. But he wasn’t able to find a position that works for him.”

Danny doesn’t want to accept that. And neither does to community. Thousands are rallying behind him on social media.



Ockenhouse adds, “and I thank everybody. Because it really means a lot to me.”

Since Danny is disabled, he does not have to work. But because he chose to, he does not qualify for disability. Danny’s job at Walmart was his primary source of income.

Some people in the community have discussed starting an online petition for Danny.