PAYING IT FORWARD
Christmas spirit at Montana’s
A random act of kindness performed in the name of holiday spirit sparked a feeling of generosity in other patrons of a Saskatoon restaurant.
Cheryl Chappell, a server at Montana’s on Mcormond Drive who worked last Wednesday night, said she was struck by a young and pleasant family she was serving that evening. The couple and their two young children were polite and complimentary while they dined.
At the end of the night, the father of the group said he also wanted to pay the bill of the table next to them. Chappell said she thought he was trying to teach his children how to be generous.
“He just kind of shrugged it off as being, I don’t know, Santa, Christmas or whatever ... and my heart just got so big,” Chappell said. “And then I got the pleasure of going up to table 41 and telling them that the sweet family beside them had actually covered the bill.”
Chappell said they seemed incredibly touched by the action, with one even commenting to Chappell nothing like that had ever happened to them before.
So perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise to Chappell when they told her they wanted to “pay it forward” for another table in the restaurant.
But then it seemed to catch on, as that table wanted to pay it forward again to one of the only remaining groups in the restaurant even though that group had a much larger bill
Chappell said it probably would have kept going, but that fourth table was the last occupied table in the restaurant at the time.
So since they could’t keep passing on the goodwill to another group in Montana’s, they instead left a generous tip for their server and the staff.
“They wrote on the table — because we write on all our tables — ‘You deserve a good one, too,’” she said with a laugh.
“I was just a silly little girl grinning from ear to ear ... it was just literally the joy of what was all of a sudden happening during my shift. It just brought joy.”
Though Chappell has worked as a server for more than a decade, she said seeing a chain of people wanting to pass on a little bit of goodwill was a new experience for her.
Chappell posted about her experience on Facebook, giving a shoutout to the first family that started the giving trend in the Montana’s on Wednesday night.
Despite wanting to let that family know what they started, Chappell said nobody has come forward and said they were one of the families there that night. And considering the unselfishness of their actions, she doesn’t really expect them to.
“When these things happen, it just reminds you how great people are,” she said. “With all the negative that’s always going on ... it’s really great when you hear a good story, and it was even cooler to be there for it.”