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

[QuikSsurfer]

Yeah - the guys brother posts on Neogaf and there's a very, very long thread over there that started the night his brother hanged himself (over a girl) -- "Seth C" is his handle.

Here's the thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=481038

Im back in the hospital. It's not been a good two weeks. My sister woke me up at 5am. Apparently he and his girlfriend had a fight, she left, and when she came back he was unconscious hanging from a noose. He is in a coma on a breathing machine. I don't even know what to think. I'm sad and want to see my brother, but also unsympathetic. His family loves him. We would give him any help he needs. I just don't know.

edit: interesting.. no mention that it was a suicide.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by 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.

Why is it shady? I've had numerous events where Panera has provided free stuff and it's saved us hundreds of dollars on food expenses. The write-off they get isn't even close to the benefit it does actually provide to people who legitimately need the bread. On the other side of the glass, I've always appreciated how helpful they have been in helping me out.

[Bump]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

Why is it shady? I've had numerous events where Panera has provided free stuff and it's saved us hundreds of dollars on food expenses. The write-off they get isn't even close to the benefit it does actually provide to people who legitimately need the bread. On the other side of the glass, I've always appreciated how helpful they have been in helping me out.

because they write it off for charity even though it just goes in the trash. I'd say once a month it was actually donated.

[QuikSsurfer]

A lot of people are commenting on his youtube page about feeling mislead about his cause of death -- some reports have been cancer...
Why would news outlets avoid calling it what it is -- a suicide

[Chiefshrink]

Originally Posted by 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.

No, it's smart and LEGAL !

Since you have the work experience at Panera's how much food is thrown away because it is actually bad as opposed to because the Fed Govt(FDA) say's so even though it is not bad? And there ya go !!

[Demonpenz]

How about I start donating to cancer once we show more progress in treatment?

[Chiefshrink]

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.

THIS X1000 !!!!

Originally Posted by stevieray

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

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

Precisely !! Bureaucracy to the 'hilt' ! These administrative thieving snakes always work themselves into the charity ring. The majority of the $$ never gets to the real cause because guys like 'zilla'(nothing personal 'zilla') need to make sure they get their 'administrative charity mafioso cut'.

You know like this Obamacare that is supposedly not a tax and everyone gets better care and yet "We The People" had no say so in the matter on how that bill was written let alone that it is not even Constitutional as a mandate 'unless' it gets into your back pocket as a tax.

Not trying to hijack the thread just drawing a much bigger parallel like example of 'zilla's' idea to Obamascare and that 'IMPROMPTU" giving avoids the "Uncle Sam" or now should I say "Uncle Obama" types and how much better everyone is off apart from the Govt when "We The People" are allowed to take care of ourselves like Ben Franklin said.

[ShortRoundChief]

Only on Chiefs planet could someone take a random act of kindness and over analyze it to the point that it became a bad thing. Seriously?

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by J Diddy

Only on Chiefs planet could someone take a random act of kindness and over analyze it to the point that it became a bad thing. Seriously?

That bidge deserved it!1!

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Rausch

That bidge deserved it!1!

I never said the family was wrong to do this. Good for them for picking a cause and running with it. At the same time, we know close to nothing about this family or that bus monitor. What would your reaction be if you donate $20 to this group and 10 months later, you learned that they were being dishonest about how the money was used? What if you learned that they started using this money to buy a $50 meal, and then add a $450 tip? I'm not saying they're doing it. But when we donate knee-jerk, there is absolutely a potential for it to happen.

I'm talking about people who donate to things on a knee-jerk reaction. How many people spent money on Trayvon Martin protests before news came out that he also assaulted Zimmerman. How many people spent money on Zimmerman's defense before they realized he's a liar? What about the $8M to the Invisible Children KONY group, a group that spends 70% of its expenses on administration and supports a cause that people are starting to question. And how stupid did people feel if they donated to that cause only to find out the guy they donated money to was a lunatic who masturbates in public?

So yeah, it scares the shit out of me that a lot of our money is increasingly going to causes... that often times aren't causes at all.

[stevieray]

bus moniter!
Zimmerman!
Trayvon!

..has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you, and an increasing number in society feel complelled to save others from themselves., based on nothing more than your own biased opinion.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by stevieray

bus moniter!
Zimmerman!
Trayvon!

..has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you, and an increasing number in society feel complelled to save others from themselves., based on nothing more than your own biased opinion.

I hate over-regulation. But I also despise people who hang their hat on the excuse that nobody can tell us what to do. When people are stupid, I'm going to call you out for being stupid. When people eat like shit, I'm going to tell them they're eating like shit and I won't feel sorry for you if you're fat because you get defensive when somebody tells you what to do. And yes, when the way people donate money carelessly affects the services that affect me, I'll speak up about it. I have several friends who are parents of cancer patients that rely on donations to keep the hospital running. I was in the room one day when my contact at the Boys and Girls Club told me she struggled to feed the kids she was keeping off the streets because money was tightening up and I heard her heartbreak over the idea that they were hungry in her care. I've seen kids camps and after-school programs get shut down because they can't secure funding, and it absolutely crushed the kids. I've spent time planning and helping friends plan charity events where we devote hundreds of hours of our spare time to raise a few thousand dollars that goes directly to charity. I've also volunteered for Food Banks that can give you an exact number as to how many meals your dollar or volunteer hour created. I've been in budget discussions during this recession where they've talked about cutting valuable programs because they just can't afford it anymore. So yeah, I'm going to call people out when they donate to organizations on a knee-jerk reaction while quality organizations are bleeding money. You have every right to do what you want. But when you do it stupidly, I have every right to call you out on it.

Not saying this family is doing the wrong thing. But we've donated stupidly in the past year to really bad causes. So yeah, I get a little bit upset when George Zimmerman defense fund raises $55,000 or the Invisible Children fund make $8M while these organizations bleed.

[|Zach|]

Nice tip.

[stevieray]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

But I also despise people who hang their hat on the excuse that nobody can tell us what to do. When people are stupid, I'm going to call you out for being stupid.

.......somebody burned you good.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by stevieray

.......somebody burned you good.

I volunteer a lot. I have seen lots of people get burned. I have also seen stubborn people who refuse to be helped. I've seen stubborn parents who don't take care of their kids and demand that a nonprofit take care of them. Because its their right to be a shitty parent. I've seen people eat their way into diabetes because how dare someone tell them to ea a certain way. Literally seen them do this. And I have spent hours raising money and know how hard it is. I've seen enough to believe that free will has turned into, in many cases, a bullheaded excuse to not take self accountability.

Thing is, I know people donating to these causes want to do the right thing. The problem is they don't realize tha in many cases, they're not donating to what they think they're donating to. So it's not even about being free to spend however you want. It's about making sure they start spending on what they think they're spending on.