A waitress at a Texas Waffle House has landed a $16,000 college scholarship after her act of kindness towards an elderly customer went viral.
Evoni Williams, 18, was working at the La Marque, Texas, Waffle House last week when she noticed a customer with an oxygen tank.
The 78-year-old Waffle House customer recently had surgery and was struggling to breathe.
Williams, who had been working as a waitress at the restaurant to save for college, immediately sprung into action and cut the elderly man’s food without hesitation, but little did she know that her random act of kindness would spread to thousands of people on social media.
Laura Wolf, a customer at the Waffle House, shared a photo on her Facebook page of the teen performing the kind gesture, which quickly gained traction on social media.
“Without hesitation, she took his plate and began cutting up his ham. This may seem small but to him, I’m sure it was huge. I’m thankful to have seen this act of kindness and caring at the start of my day while everything in this world seems so negative,” Wolf wrote in the post, which had more than 126,000 reactions and had been shared more than 64,000 times as of Saturday afternoon.
The viral post caught the attention of Texas Southern University, which offered Williams a $16,000 scholarship in recognition of her act of kindness.
KVUE reported that the teen, who wants to study business management, would also have the aid of a counselor to help her enroll in the college and plan for her degree.
The mayor of La Marque also took notice of her actions and named March 8, 2018, “Evonni ‘Nini’ Williams Day” in honor of her kind gesture.
The teen said she did not expect the outpouring of recognition for her kindness towards the man.
“It just came from the heart,” she said, adding that she still plans to keep her job at the Waffle House.
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