Actor Donnie Wahlberg recently left a $2,020 tip at a Massachusetts restaurant, continuing his habit of leaving generous gratuities to brighten the days of the wait staff.
The “Band of Brothers” and “Blue Bloods” actor and former member of boy band New Kids on the Block left the tip on a $35.27 lunchtime bill at Marshland 3A, a restaurant located in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on Nov. 7.
A photo of the receipt posted by the restaurant on Facebook reads #2020TipChallenge, a hashtag that encourages people to tip generously.
“A very special thank you to our friend @donniewahlberg!,” the restaurant wrote in its post. “When asked about it all he said was ‘who’s up next?!’”
Wahlberg, a Boston native, left a $2,020 tip at an Illinois IHOP earlier this year and in 2017, left a $2,000 tip at a Waffle House in North Carolina.
Earlier this year, Franzoni, 31, got the tip while working Sunday at Thunder Bay River Restaurant in Alpena. The credit card receipt said “Happy New Year. 2020 Tip Challenge.”
The restaurant bill was $23. But the tip at a small-town restaurant in Michigan was much larger: $2,020.
Franzoni, a single mother, couldn’t believe the number, but her manager assured her the tip was legitimate.
She said she was living in a homeless shelter a year ago. Franzoni plans to use the money to reinstate her driver’s license and build savings.
“They don’t know nothing about my story. They don’t know where I’ve come from. They don’t know how hard it’s been,” Franzoni said of the couple who left the tip. “They’re really just doing this out of the kindness of their heart.”
Franzoni later went to a restaurant and left a $20.20 tip.
“That was my pay-it-forward,” she said, smiling. “I couldn’t do the other one.”