POLK COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – A Lakeland woman is spreading her appreciation for servers by giving them “big fat tips.”
“I was just in shock because you think it’s a joke,” said Cathy Mayfield, a waitress at the Egg Station in Lakeland. “I was like, are you kidding? It has to be a joke. But it was real!”
Last week, she served her first table of the day – a couple of egg sandwiches, a coffee and a soda.
The customers gave her a $1,000 tip on a $16 bill.
“The kindness to me is more than the money. To know the kindness is still out there it shows you that there is still good in the world,” said Mayfield.
She plans to give each of her co-workers at the restaurant that morning $50 each.
The rest she will put in her savings account.
“Most of the time people that are waitressing are going through something – a young mother, a kid in college – there’s always, some way or another, there’s struggling,” she said.
“It is so exciting to give away this money. I almost wonder if it’s more exciting for the people giving the money than the people receiving it,” said Deedre Daniel, the founder of “Big Fat Tip.”
Mayfield was the eleventh server to receive a $1,000 “Big Fat Tip.”
It’s an organization Daniel founded to show her appreciation for servers. Daniel has given the big tips to five servers in Lakeland and six in other cities across the country.
She used to be a waitress.
“You are really at the mercy of the generosity of the people you encounter that day and a lot of that’s pure fate,” she said.
Daniel chooses her recipients completely at random.
To donate to her next “big fat tip,” visit her website.
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