Dairy Queen of Kindness, and More

Tina Jensen has seen a few daisy chains of kindness in her day, but nothing like this. A manager of two Dairy Queens in Brainerd, Minnesota, Jensen says that a drivethrough customer will occasionally pick up the tab for the strangers in the next car, and then those grateful strangers will do the same for the car behind, and then the following car does the same. Sometimes the chain can last for 20 cars before petering out. Last December—in the heart of the holiday season and the third wave of COVID-19 illnesses—the kindness almost never stopped. In fact, it lasted for two days and over 900 cars. Or, put another way, people bought $10,000 worth of ice cream for strangers.

“During times like these it kinda restores your faith in humanity a little,” said Heidi Bruse, who did her part to pay it forward in the line on one of the nights. “The way the world is now, you see a lot of anger, tension, and selfish behavior. What we witnessed was pure kindness, and it was a breath of fresh air, really.”