250 pay it forward chain reaction at McDonald’s drive-thru

McDonald's Drive Thru
McDonald's Drive-Thru (Flickr)

It’s the most wonderful time of the year and we have the proof. A woman at a McDonald’s drive-thru in Florida started a chain reaction of 250 people when she got into the spirit of the season and paid for the meal of the customer in the car behind her.

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Torie Keene of Lakeland was paying for her meal when she told cashier Marisabel Figueroa that she wanted to pay for the meal of the car behind her, according to ABC News.

Figueroa told ABC News that Keene specifically instructed her to tell the customer behind her “Merry Christmas,” and not “Happy Holidays,” when she passed on the merry meal gesture.

That act of kindness was enough to start a pay it forward chain reaction at the drive-thru that went on for several hours.

“It kept going and going. After the 15th car I started tally marking the number of people that were participating on a piece of paper,” Figueroa said.

Figueroa said one woman even paid for the meals of the next three cars behind her.

By the end of her shift a 6-hour shift, 250 people had paid it forward.

In her 12 years of working for McDonald’s, Figueroa says she’s never seen anything like it.