A young Tennessee waitress received a tip of $10, 749 by supporters after she was handed a receipt with racist comment by customer last month.
Toni Christina Jenkins, a waitress at Red Lobster, said a customer wrote "none" with the N-word on the 'tip' line on the receipt and handed it to her. "I was just stunned that it happened," 19-year-old Toni said. "It's not something that you think in our generation would actually take place, so I was just blown away by it."
She posted the photo on Facebook that went viral within hours. Following this Red Lobster fired her saying that it was against company policies to post photos of receipts by the employees on any social networking website. But she was taken back to work after her story became public.
A California man, Matthew Hanson, started an online fundraising campaign for the waitress, 'Tips for Toni' after the photo of the receipt took the people by storm. The campaign collected $10,749 and presented it to Toni.
"It was about sending a message to racists that Americans aren't going to tolerate that," Hanson told ABC News. "We raised $10,000 within seventy-two hours. It was really amazing."
Toni was unaware of the campaign and was shell-shocked after receiving the cheque. "I literally screamed. I was so confused," Toni said. "I was just so thankful. I felt so blessed and so honored that so many people came together on my behalf to give this to me."
Officials at Red Lobsters issued a statement to ABC News. "We are disgusted by the language used on this guest check and it has no place in our restaurant or anywhere else. We were in constant communication with [our server] throughout this situation and have extended her a high degree of respect and caring for what happened. No one should have to endure what our employee went through."
