Everyone has struggles in life, and an act of kindness might be just what a stranger needs. This year, the Atlantic FFA collected donations to give large tips to unsuspecting servers at the restaurants they visited during their National FFA Convention trip.
In October Atlantic FFA took 14 members on their annual trip to the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Ind. Last year Lisa Sontag, a teacher at AHS who volunteered to drive a Suburban for the road trip sent out her Venmo account link on AHS FFA social media accounts to invite community members to donate money to be used for tips for the waiters and waitresses who served at restaurants. This year Atlantic FFA decided to make “Pay it Forward” a tradition and continue donating money to wait staff during National Convention trips. Eric Miller, the advisor of Atlantic FFA, published his Venmo link on Instagram and Facebook on Tuesday, October 22. He proceeded to pull money out of an ATM so the FFA members could hand the server cash. (Handing the servers cash meant they wouldn’t have to share it with the other waiters working that night.)
Atlantic FFA raised $1800 from various donors, which was $200 more than the previous year. On the first night of the National Convention when the Atlantic FFA went to Texas Roadhouse for supper; each waiter received $300. Another night the group went to Rascals Fun Zone where they gave $200 to their pizza servers. On the final night of the National Convention, the Atlantic FFA ate at Olive Garden and the waitress received a “huge” tip amount totaling $1000. The waitress couldn’t believe she had received a 285% tip for her service.
“The reason we do it is that it’s potentially an opportunity for servers and staff to be impactful for their lives, and it’s good for our students to see it,” Miller said. Other students thought it was an “impactful” way of promoting their chapters beyond awards, contests and shows. Maddy Anderson said, “It’s so uplifting to see the look on the waiters’ and waitresses’ faces knowing we helped them in their life somehow.”
Atlantic FFA plans to help their servers in need for many years to come. Miller said he will make sure to get the word out sooner next year to raise “even more money” for their National FFA Convention trip in 2025.
