Waiter left homophobic note instead of tip stunned as hundreds of kind strangers step in
A homophobic customer refused to tip “sinful homosexuals” (Facebook/Eric Salzwedel)
A waiter who was left a homophobic comment in place of a tip got the last laugh when hundreds of kind strangers surprised him with $4,500.
After dining at a restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin on Sunday (15 August), one hateful customer refused to leave their waiter a tip because they disapproved of his sexuality.
“Service was good but we don’t tip sinfull [sic] homosexuals,” they scrawled on the receipt for their $142.95 meal.
A photo of the note was shared on Facebook by Eric Salzwedel, co-founder of Do Good Wisconsin, a non-profit based on performing random acts of kindness.
“This really upset me that someone would do something like this,” he told Channel 3000. “To go to the extent of saying it was good service, but because of their sexual orientation, they decided not to give them a tip.”
Salzwedel started a Venmo challenge and urged people to chip in to “show there is more love than hate in this world” – and his followers went above and beyond.
Homophobic customer outnumbered by hundreds of kind strangers
“Within 36 hours I had received $4,500 from folks sending an extra tip for $5, $10, $20+ from across the country,” he said.
On Tuesday evening Salzwedel dined at the Madison restaurant, requested that specific server, and personally handed them the massive tip.
“We were able to surprise the server with the tip and to let them know that people love them for who they are and to not listen to those who just want to spread hate onto others,” he said.
“As you may expect they were surprised from the tip and extremely grateful.”
The next day Salzwedel proudly shared a photo of the new receipt next to the old one, saying: “To the folks who felt it was necessary to write this hateful note and not tip… don’t worry me and about 250 others will cover the tip for you.”
“There’s a lot of opportunities every single day we wake up and we go out that we can either make a positive difference in the lives of people we run into or we can make a negative impact on people we run into every day,” Salzwedel said to NBC15.
With that in mind, Do Good Wisconsin will appear in major cities across the state over the next eight weeks, spreading positivity one good deed at a time.
