A Jersey guy brought his cheesesteak truck to Philly to help another guy’s mom see the pyramids

Dustin Vitale’s story hit Mike Hauke square in the feels.

After learning that she had late-stage cancer, Vitale’s mother, Gloria Walker, told her son that she wanted to see the pyramids in Egypt to fulfill a longtime dream. And Vitale, a Philadelphia middle-school history teacher, decided to make cheesesteaks out of his kitchen to raise the money.

The idea landed on the radar of Philadelphia chef Michael Solomonov, who shared the word on his Instagram account. Then. last week, an Inquirer article about the fund-raiser touched Hauke’s heart.

» READ MORE: Philly cheesesteak fund-raiser will help Dustin Vitale’s mother finally see the pyramids of Giza

Hauke’s mother, Patti, died 16 years ago of cancer. “All she wanted to do was go to Maine and see the fall foliage,” Hauke said. “We never made it there. And I said, ‘You know what? Let me call him up and see what’s going on.’ ”

Which is why Hauke, who owns the four Tony Boloney’s sandwich and pizza shops in New Jersey, packed 500 pounds of rib-eye steak, 1,000 rolls, 200 pounds of cheese, many bags of onions, and 250 T-shirts into his Atlantic City-based food truck and rolled up to Vitale’s block in Northeast Philadelphia on Sunday.

Hauke and three workers flipped on the grill and turned out steak sandwiches and orders of fries for hundreds of friends and supporters who lined up along Loretto Avenue. Vitale worked the window, handing over food in takeout containers, with a big grin all afternoon. The sale, Vitale said later, reached its goal of $10,000.

Neighbors, who put up with a few hours of congestion, even ceded two precious parking spaces for the black-and-white Tony Boloney’s truck. Gloria Walker watched from the porch, keeping her social distance, holding court with relatives and former coworkers from Aria Hospital, where she had been a dietitian. Her other children, Jessica and Denny, sold shirts and helped keep order.

Vitale said his mother, who is 56, wants her family to join her on the trip, which they hope to take after school lets out.

“He’s a beautiful soul,” said family friend Robert Morales of Vitale, while eating a chicken cheesesteak that Vitale’s wife, Hailey, had prepared for him, with help from family friends Nate and Evelyn DeSantana. Among the attendees were Tim Patterson, who went to Freehold High School with Hauke, and Ethan Mawhinney, who went to Cairn University with Vitale. Most people ordered one or two sandwiches. Family friend Wadiya Ford toted four boxes to her car.

The event, which went from idea to reality in only four days, had gone viral on social media, with Vitale sending frequent updates. One post let slip that he and Hailey are expecting their first child.

Vitale, 26, is known to friends and to his students at First Philadelphia Preparatory Charter School as a cheesesteak aficionado. Not only does he eat several sandwiches a week, he regularly cooks them on a large grill set out on his deck. “Best cheesesteak I ever ate,” said Mawhinney, who bought some at a previous sale. Vitale has said he enjoys making them as a hobbyist and has no professional plans. “My heart and passion is teaching and for the students,” he said.

The ingredients for Sunday’s event were donated. Jesse Amoroso of Amoroso’s had given boxes of rolls to Vitale before Hauke also secured contributions from A. Rando Bakery in Atlantic City. Hauke’s supplier, U.S. Foods, kicked in the meat and onions, and Grande Cheese donated the cheese. A friend, Bryce Bundy, supplied the shirts, which had “Vitale’s Steaks’ printed on the front.

Hauke said he asked his employees to help, “and they jumped on it,” he said. “By the way, [they said] you don’t have to pay me.” He said he would pay them anyway.

“This is a good kid,” Hauke said of Vitale. “I love my mom. He loves his mom. Obviously this is a big deal. He has a baby on the way. He’s a schoolteacher. That’s all they do — give, give, give. This is the least we can do on a Sunday, coming out and having a good time.”