Hundreds of customers at the drive-thru of a Tampa-area Starbucks participated in the random act of kindness trend made famous by the movie “Pay it Forward,” grabbing the tab for the car behind them — for nearly 400 cars.
The chain of kindness started Wednesday about 7 a.m. with one woman who said she’d like to pay for the order of the car that followed her, the Tampa Bay Times reported. That customer then paid for the next.
Employees started keeping a tally. By 1:30, the tally surpassed 250.
“It makes your day better, I think,” one recipient told the Times.
The trend lasted until 6 p.m., when the driver of a white Jeep Commander refused to pay for anything but her own drink, even though hers had been paid for, the Times reported. The final tally: 379.
The movie “Pay it Forward” was a 2000 drama based on a novel of the same name by Catherine Ryan Hyde. The book was about a boy who devises the goodwill plan after his social studies teacher gives the assignment to change the world for the better.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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