Waitress Mom Gets $1,000 Tip on $29 Check

Jennifer O'Neill
·Writer
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Thanks to the $1,000 two strangers gave Kari VanArdoy at the WingHouse in Largo, Florida, the single mom “was able to sign the lease on a new apartment,” her manager tells Yahoo Parenting. (Photo: ABC, Bay News 9) 

Kari VanArdoy swears that usually, she doesn’t have good luck. But good fortune found the Florida waitress on Wednesday, in the form of a generous couple who spontaneously decided to tip her more than 3,400 percent of their bill at the WingHouse of Largo.

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“I thought it was $10 at first because that would have been a nice tip on that tab,” the single mother of a 2 year-old told WFTS of the customers’ $29 check. “But really, it was two extra zeros.” That’s right: The anonymous duo tipped the 22-year-old $1,000 on the bill for their bottomless boneless wings, blue cheese, and sodas.

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(Photo: ABC, Bay News 9).

“She about cried in the middle of the restaurant,” WingHouse manager Lisa Lee tells Yahoo Parenting of the mom, who has been waiting tables at the restaurant for the past five years while also attending college. “She works hard, goes to school, takes care of her kid. She does well, but this means the world to her.”

VanArdoy has been working two jobs, in fact, in order to save up and move from a studio to a one-bedroom apartment with her toddler and her boyfriend. This windfall from the strangers, whom VanArdoy had never met before, made all the difference. “The next day, she was able to sign the lease on a new apartment,” says Lee.

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(Photo: ABC, Bay News 9).

So what prompted the strangers’ generous gesture to VanArdoy? They took time to get to know her, VanArdoy’s boss told ABC News. “The couple was inquisitive with her and just finding out bits and pieces about her life,” said WingHouse general manager David Eschenfelder. “It was just an ordinary couple that wanted to make her happy. You don’t find many people like that anymore. They just gave it to her out of the goodness of their hearts.”

And as soon as VanArdoy saw the tip, she hugged the strangers tight and talked with the woman a bit more. “I didn’t do anything for them ever, so it was just a sweet act,” VanArdoy said. And there might even be more special help down the line. The mom revealed, “She actually told me she was my guardian angel if I ever need anything.”

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