How many of you guys do this kinda stuff? I'm inspired by the story below about the $100,000 in Santa money orders that got put in the kettles.
My wife and I gave a waitress the other day a $100 gift card. She was very nice and attentive, but it was more than that - just something that told me she needed a pick-me-up. One of those feelings you get, you know? We actually left her a card with our phone number, not because we wanted her to know who we were, but because I was MORE afraid there would be problems with the gift card. You know, it's one of those you buy at the store and they activate it at the register for you? I'm ALWAYS afraid there's gonna be a problem when they go to use it, so I wanted her to be able to get in touch if there were a problem.
I generally tip pretty well, unless service is HORRIBLE, 15-25% most places. I worked years in foodservice and know how badly it sucks.
Anyways, I have an idea of something I'd like to do someday.... I want to get a bunch of $100 bills, 1 per day for a YEAR. So, $36,500 over the course of a year. I want to give a $100 gift to someone every day. Someone who stands out in the sea of apathetic or rude people we see every day. A salesclerk, a waitress/server, a bus driver, a teacher, a gas station attendant, etc. The problem is, I can't figure out how to do it anonymously. I would like to leave them a card with a little note saying, "You are receiving this gift because you are a shining example of humanity and cheer in a dark world. This gift is not from me, but from God, who sees your struggle." Or something to that effect, you know? I do NOT want people to know it is me doing it. I can do something like this now, can probably afford once a week, not once daily (yet), but I do NOT want it getting around town who is doing it, so people recognize me and try harder. I want it to be genuine, from the heart, part of the personality, not something someone is putting on in hopes of winning the "daily prize". We went back to the restaurant the other night and our waitress was OVER THE TOP attentive, and I got the feeling she knew about the previous gift. I will be avoiding that restaurant for a while now.
I live in a relatively small town. We could get away with it for a while here, but I am moving to a MUCH smaller town in a few months and it will be impossible to keep it a secret. So I'm looking for ideas on how to pull something like this off. Suggestions?
And BTW, please don't think I'm posting this for an atta-boy. I really honestly don't want any kind of praise for this, I think of this as my duty, to try to encourage people out there who are struggling as I did (and do), not to toot my horn or anything like that. I thought of making another login to post this, but I think it may be against forum rules to use different logins (most forums are like this).
What kinds of things have you guys found to do to encourage others to be moral, upstanding people in this dark society today? Give us all some ideas... pay it forward, kinda thing.
My wife and I gave a waitress the other day a $100 gift card. She was very nice and attentive, but it was more than that - just something that told me she needed a pick-me-up. One of those feelings you get, you know? We actually left her a card with our phone number, not because we wanted her to know who we were, but because I was MORE afraid there would be problems with the gift card. You know, it's one of those you buy at the store and they activate it at the register for you? I'm ALWAYS afraid there's gonna be a problem when they go to use it, so I wanted her to be able to get in touch if there were a problem.
I generally tip pretty well, unless service is HORRIBLE, 15-25% most places. I worked years in foodservice and know how badly it sucks.
Anyways, I have an idea of something I'd like to do someday.... I want to get a bunch of $100 bills, 1 per day for a YEAR. So, $36,500 over the course of a year. I want to give a $100 gift to someone every day. Someone who stands out in the sea of apathetic or rude people we see every day. A salesclerk, a waitress/server, a bus driver, a teacher, a gas station attendant, etc. The problem is, I can't figure out how to do it anonymously. I would like to leave them a card with a little note saying, "You are receiving this gift because you are a shining example of humanity and cheer in a dark world. This gift is not from me, but from God, who sees your struggle." Or something to that effect, you know? I do NOT want people to know it is me doing it. I can do something like this now, can probably afford once a week, not once daily (yet), but I do NOT want it getting around town who is doing it, so people recognize me and try harder. I want it to be genuine, from the heart, part of the personality, not something someone is putting on in hopes of winning the "daily prize". We went back to the restaurant the other night and our waitress was OVER THE TOP attentive, and I got the feeling she knew about the previous gift. I will be avoiding that restaurant for a while now.
I live in a relatively small town. We could get away with it for a while here, but I am moving to a MUCH smaller town in a few months and it will be impossible to keep it a secret. So I'm looking for ideas on how to pull something like this off. Suggestions?
And BTW, please don't think I'm posting this for an atta-boy. I really honestly don't want any kind of praise for this, I think of this as my duty, to try to encourage people out there who are struggling as I did (and do), not to toot my horn or anything like that. I thought of making another login to post this, but I think it may be against forum rules to use different logins (most forums are like this).
What kinds of things have you guys found to do to encourage others to be moral, upstanding people in this dark society today? Give us all some ideas... pay it forward, kinda thing.
) move us.
