Fast-food restaurant sets new mark for good karma: 23 customers in a row ‘pay it forward’

By Scott Williams

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    UNION GROVE, Georgia (Gwinnett Daily Post) — When it comes to paying it forward, customers at a McDonald’s restaurant have joined together to take a giant leap onward.

Twenty-three customers in the restaurant’s drive-through lane took turns Thursday paying for the person next in line behind them — a new record-high number at the restaurant.

Sharlene Wincek, an employee at the McDonald’s restaurant in Union Grove, was so moved by a record-breaking “pay it forward” chain of customers that she announced it on Facebook. Wincek

“It was kind of unreal,” said employee Sharlene Wincek, who was working the drive-through lane at the time.

The spontaneous gesture of goodwill toward strangers impressed the McDonald’s crew so much that Wincek posted it on Facebook, congratulating Union Grove for the community’s generosity.

It also turned an average day at work into a memorable and heartwarming experience.

Restaurant manager Tyler Gaethke said he was amazed to see so many people reach into their pockets and connect with total strangers through mutual benevolence.

“Sometimes you have good days and bad days,” Gaethke said. “But that was a great day.”

Employee Erika Guzman waits for the next customer Saturday in the drive-through lane at a McDonald’s restaurant that serves about 900 people a day in Union Grove. The establishment usually sees at least one “pay it forward” request each day.

The concept of “pay it forward” — popularized by a 2000 movie with that name — involves random acts of kindness toward others, typically by buying their coffee, meal or groceries. It is often done anonymously, so a recipient never knows who their secret donor was.

At the Union Grove McDonald’s restaurant, 835 15th Avenue, which serves about 900 customers a day, employees usually see someone pay it forward in the drive-through lane about once a day.

A recipient has the option of grabbing their free lunch and leaving. But frequently, when someone discovers that their meal has been paid for, they continue the spirit of giving by anonymously paying for the person in line behind them. And so on.

The previous record-high streak at the restaurant was 15 people in a row.

Bob Wright of Burlington was No. 8 in the sequence Thursday. When Wincek told him that his Big Mac meal had been paid for, Wright smiled and took care of the next customer.

Even though it ended up costing Wright a few dollars more than his own lunch would have cost, he said, it felt good to help someone else.

“It seemed like the right thing to do,” he said. “Someone buys you lunch — why not?”

Wincek said she is always careful not to pressure people into continuing a pay-it-forward streak. She realizes that money is tight, and that even just a few dollars can make a big difference for some families.

When Wincek watched one customer after another pay it forward until 23 had participated, she was speechless.

Several of them paid more than what their own meal would have cost. But whether the next customer was getting a simple cup of coffee or lunch for a carload of people, everyone just continued giving and giving.

“It was beautiful,” Wincek said. “I feel like it’s the community coming together.”

The process sometimes slows things down in the restaurant’s drive-through lane, as employees take a moment to explain to each customer what is happening.

But no one seems to mind the minor inconvenience.

Autumn Russell, a shift manager at the restaurant, said she has worked at other McDonald’s locations in the past. She has never seen so many people pay it forward as she does in Union Grove.

Russell said she will not complain about the line moving a little more slowly.

“People want to help each other out,” she said. “It’s wonderful.”

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