Family makes good on dying family member’s last wish: Leave $500 tip

[mikey23545]

Family makes good on dying family member’s last wish: Leave $500 tip


A dying man's last wish was to make someone else's day. After his death, the family of Aaron Collins fulfilled his wish to go have pizza and leave their server a $500 tip.

The story surfaced on the blog Fark: 30-year-old Collins, a computer technician who died July 7, had no money to make his wish come true. So his family raised the cash through a website http://aaroncollins.org/ after just a few days and then made good on his request. At Puccini's restaurant in Lexington, Ky., the family lunched on pizza, and then presented one very lucky waitress with $500.

The video captures the moment. As the cash is handed over, the waitress keeps asking, "Are you serious?" She then promises to share her good fortune with other restaurant staff, and says, "You know, I'm going to be telling this story for the rest of my life."

To introduce the video, Aaron's brother Seth writes, "We think he just wanted to provide a random act of kindness and generosity for someone he thought was under appreciated; the kind of thing that would make a lasting impact they would never forget." Mission very accomplished.

The website continues to accept donations, and the family plans to give away big tips every time they raise another $500, noting, "We have already received over $500 more, so we will be doing this again soon. Hopefully we can continue changing the lives of random waiters and waitresses for years."


news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/family-makes-good-dying-family-member-last-wish-183919770.html

[mikey23545]

From aaroncollins.org :

"I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for the overwhelming amount of support you have given my family. Since last night we have received over $10,000 in donations. When I started this site I only expected to receive donations from friends and family. I was hopeful that we would get enough to make my brother’s wish come true. Even in my wildest dreams, I imagined we would receive enough money to do this for 2 waiters or waitresses. What has happened is absolutely incredible.

Right now we have enough money to change the lives of 23 more people, $500 at a time. That is nothing short of amazing. Please know that absolutely every penny we receive will go toward nothing but this. We will pay to host the website. We will pay for the food. Absolutely 100% of the donations we receive will be given to random waiters or waitresses. Our goal is to do this once a week, for as long as you give us the opportunity.

The stories, comments, and notes have touched my heart. They have given my mother, father, sisters, and me strength. The way my brother’s last wish has inspired people is incredible. It is my hope that even if you can’t donate, but feel moved, you will give your own huge tip and share the story here. If you are a waiter or waitress who receives a huge tip because of Aaron’s wish, please tell us.

Again, thank you all so much for your own generosity. Thank you for allowing me to help facilitate your acts of kindness. You have amazed me."

[Ebolapox]

pretty cool

[chiefzilla1501]

It's a pretty cool story.

Can I be the asshole, though, that is just a little bit concerned about what people are donating money to these days? I don't see the point in collecting money beyond the $500 tip. You have legit nonprofit organizations that are bleeding money because donorship is down, and yet school bus monitors and random acts of tipping and George Zimmerman are collecting thousands of dollars....

I serve on a nonprofit board. I can assure you that collecting that kind of money is hard work. There are better ways to donate money than for a family to engage in random acts of kindness. St. Jude's hospital would use that money to keep the lights on in a hospital that provides free patient care to kids. The Boys and Girls Club would use it to buy new gym equipment for their kids.

Anyway, flame away. Because I know people will.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

It's a pretty cool story.

Can I be the asshole, though, that is just a little bit concerned about what people are donating money to these days? I don't see the point in collecting money beyond the $500 tip. You have legit nonprofit organizations that are bleeding money because donorship is down, and yet school bus monitors and random acts of tipping and George Zimmerman are collecting thousands of dollars....

I serve on a nonprofit board. I can assure you that collecting that kind of money is hard work. There are better ways to donate money than for a family to engage in random acts of kindness. St. Jude's hospital would use that money to keep the lights on in a hospital that provides free patient care to kids. The Boys and Girls Club would use it to buy new gym equipment for their kids.

Anyway, flame away. Because I know people will.

IMO the only good charity is immediate charity.

You buy a guy a sami'tch. You pay a parking fine. You give someone a quart of oil from your trunk or a jump start in a parking lot.

[stevieray]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

It's a pretty cool story.

Can I be the asshole, though, that is just a little bit concerned about what people are donating money to these days? I don't see the point in collecting money beyond the $500 tip. You have legit nonprofit organizations that are bleeding money because donorship is down, and yet school bus monitors and random acts of tipping and George Zimmerman are collecting thousands of dollars....

I serve on a nonprofit board. I can assure you that collecting that kind of money is hard work. There are better ways to donate money than for a family to engage in random acts of kindness. St. Jude's hospital would use that money to keep the lights on in a hospital that provides free patient care to kids. The Boys and Girls Club would use it to buy new gym equipment for their kids.

Anyway, flame away. Because I know people will.

so, hey, can I decide what you do with your money?

....didn't think so.....

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by stevieray

so, hey, can I decide what you do with your money?

....didn't think so.....

With the death tax, yes...

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Rausch

IMO the only good charity is immediate charity.

You buy a guy a sami'tch. You pay a parking fine. You give someone a quart of oil from your trunk or a jump start in a parking lot.

I understand where you're coming from in terms of why this trend is happening. But it's disturbing nonetheless. It may make a bus monitor feel good to make that much money for emotional distress. But I'd say that keeping a cancer patient alive with free care provided by generous donorship is pretty impactful and immediate. The bus monitor could still be happy with a lot less money coming her way. The kid in the hospital would die if the hospital could no longer
afford her care.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

I understand where you're coming from in terms of why this trend is happening. But it's disturbing nonetheless. It may make a bus monitor feel good to make that much money for emotional distress. But I'd say that keeping a cancer patient alive with free care provided by generous donorship is pretty impactful and immediate. The bus monitor could still be happy with a lot less money coming her way. The kid in the hospital would die if the hospital could no longer
afford her care.

You don't want to follow this argument to its end...

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by stevieray

so, hey, can I decide what you do with your money?

....didn't think so.....

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by stevieray

so, hey, can I decide what you do with your money?

....didn't think so.....

If you eat unhealthy and then wonder why you're fat, I'm going to call you out for eating garbage.

We saw millions of dollars get raised for The KONY campaign, and then months later people realized "holy shit, what did I just spend my money on? This might be the wrong cause." You have thousands of dollars going to the defense of George Zimmerman, a guy who gets shadier with every passing day. Now we're donating money to this family who, while probably has the best intentions, could very well be pocketing some of the money for all we know. Or what if the story came out that the bus monitor we sent money to was in fact a huge jerk?

I'm not saying "don't spend your money." I'm pointing out the obvious point that it scares the shit out of me that we're donating money in knee-jerk ways to people and organizations we know close to nothing about. And in many cases, we act surprised when they aren't who they thought they would be. And it scares the shit out of me because there are organizations that fully disclose everything they do and that provide 100 times more an impact than most of these knee-jerk donations, and they are struggling big time for money.

So again... people are free to spend money on whatever they want. But spending it in this way is just plain stupid.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

If you eat unhealthy and then wonder why you're fat, I'm going to call you out for eating garbage.

We saw millions of dollars get raised for The KONY campaign, and then months later people realized "holy shit, what did I just spend my money on? This might be the wrong cause." You have thousands of dollars going to the defense of George Zimmerman, a guy who gets shadier with every passing day. Now we're donating money to this family who, while probably has the best intentions, could very well be pocketing some of the money for all we know. Or what if the story came out that the bus monitor we sent money to was in fact a huge jerk?

I'm not saying "don't spend your money." I'm pointing out the obvious point that it scares the shit out of me that we're donating money in knee-jerk ways to people and organizations we know close to nothing about. And in many cases, we act surprised when they aren't who they thought they would be. And it scares the shit out of me because there are organizations that fully disclose everything they do and that provide 100 times more an impact than most of these knee-jerk donations, and they are struggling big time for money.

So again... people are free to spend money on whatever they want. But spending it in this way is just plain stupid.

By the way, to go more directly on your first example. The way you're donating your money today is like giving a sandwich to a guy who, it turns out, wasn't hungry and ends up throwing the sandwich away. Or giving a tank of gas to a guy who then drives to a motel to beat up his girlfriend.

At least with legit nonprofits, you can pretty much follow the trail of the dollar you spent. You can choose to spend based on what gratifies you. That's your prerogative. I'm saying it scares the shit out of me that people are increasingly caring less about how their dollar leads to actual impact.

[Bump]

speaking of donating, way back in the day like 10 years ago I worked at panera bread. They donate all of the left over bread/pastry to the homeless. It turns out to be a couple of hundred dollars worth of stuff per day that they get to write off and they do it every single day.

The thing is though, it's all thrown away every night. Nobody comes to pick it up, but they "donate" it to the trash and get hundreds of thousands of tax write offs each year for each store. But it just goes in the trash. Pretty shady if you ask me.

[Saulbadguy]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

If you eat unhealthy and then wonder why you're fat, I'm going to call you out for eating garbage.

We saw millions of dollars get raised for The KONY campaign, and then months later people realized "holy shit, what did I just spend my money on? This might be the wrong cause." You have thousands of dollars going to the defense of George Zimmerman, a guy who gets shadier with every passing day. Now we're donating money to this family who, while probably has the best intentions, could very well be pocketing some of the money for all we know. Or what if the story came out that the bus monitor we sent money to was in fact a huge jerk?

I'm not saying "don't spend your money." I'm pointing out the obvious point that it scares the shit out of me that we're donating money in knee-jerk ways to people and organizations we know close to nothing about. And in many cases, we act surprised when they aren't who they thought they would be. And it scares the shit out of me because there are organizations that fully disclose everything they do and that provide 100 times more an impact than most of these knee-jerk donations, and they are struggling big time for money.

So again... people are free to spend money on whatever they want. But spending it in this way is just plain stupid.

Look at this way - they could be wasting all that money on tithing.

[Valiant]

What is your charity? Interested to see how you rate..

http://www.charitywatch.org/toprated.html