If the holidays are meant to celebrate friends and family gathering, they are also meant to celebrate your fellow man.
Which is why one group of strangers joined together on Facebook, chose a time and a place, and decided to celebrate one another. Jeremy Kelsey was part of that group.
“I knew only my friend from high school, everyone else we did not know. We don’t even live in the area,” Kelsey said.
A dozen people, all wanting to celebrate the holidays in an extra special way, spend a few hours sharing a meal and getting to know one another.
“Initially it’s a little awkward because you’re trying to create some small talk with the people and stuff but eventually you’re all there for the same reason and it makes it easy,” Kelsey added.
But it’s not just about getting to know whoever sitting at the table -- it’s about doing something special. Hollis Bryan joins his dad every year.
“It started out just saying you took videos of it happening, and over time he said, ‘You know what, I wanna do this,’” Bryan said.
The group gathers through the holidays to give wait staff a big surprise. Tonight … the surprise went to Riley Olsen.
“They asked to talk to me and I saw all the cameras come out … I was a little worried! I thought I did something wrong. And then they pulled out the money and I was … absolutely speechless,” Olsen said. “I have no idea what happened at that point. I kind of blacked out a little bit.”
Throughout dinner, the group got to know 21-year-old Olsen.
“I’m a struggling student with no money. That’s how I have this job,” Olsen said.
The University of North Florida student has worked at the Oakleaf location of Gator’s Dockside for a little under a year.
“Work and school that’s about my life right now,” Olsen said.
He was given a $1,200 tip from the group.
“I don’t think I’ve ever held this much money in my hands before, never … It was crazy. I’m still speechless to this moment thinking about it,” Olsen said.
An amount of money he says will change this Christmas season -- and his semester next year.
“It makes it a little bit easier. Working here is not the highest paying job, so I have this money, it just makes life so much easier,” he said.
It’s a way this group of strangers decided to come together to spread the love this holiday season, Denise Grimes said.
“It’s all about paying it forward and just doing the right thing for the right people,” Grimes said.
And help out those who need it.
“Just the fact that people are willing to do that is everything. Tips are our pay here, so just being able to get money, someone’s willing to just give that much to a server … it means the world,” Olsen said.
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