Lessons in kindness can be learned in almost any situation. One Texas man recently found out that even the oddest of situations can be an inspiration in why you should pay it forward with kindness. And it’s all due to him accidentally throwing away his dentures.
When Craig Paulk stopped in for dinner at a Long John Silver’s in San Antonio, he did what he usually did – removed his partial denture and put it in a napkin for safekeeping. But when he finished and threw his meal in the trash, he sent the napkin with his denture into the garbage, as well.
Unaware of what he did, Paulk left and got in his car. After checking to make sure he had his wallet, he suddenly realized what had happened. He said he briefly considered just leaving it in the trash. “I didn’t want to have to do that and go back in and dig through the trash in front of people,” Paulk said.
I wasn’t going to ask [the staff] to do it.”
But he decided he would face up to what happened and go in and get it. “I thought, ‘I’ll just go back in [and] just ask for the bag of trash and take it with me and be on my way,’” he said. Inside, he spoke with assistant manager, Stella Magano, and explained what had happened.
Long John Silver’s assistant manager Stella Magano (L) retrieved customer Craig Paulk’s partial denture from the trash after it was accidentally thrown away. Magano received a $1,000 gift for her act of kindness. Photo courtesy of Paulk
After a bit of discussion as to whether Paulk would be allowed to fish through the trash to find his denture, Magano decided to just look for Paulk. She asked me, ‘Well, what’s it look like?’ I said, ‘It’s folded up in a napkin,'” Paulk said.
“So she pulled about three or four plates out and was moving stuff around. I was looking with her and I said, ‘Well, maybe that’s it.’ It was laid off to the side, and so she grabbed it and held it out. Sure enough, it was that,” he said. “It was less than a minute that she was in the trash.”
Once home, Paulk decided he would fill out a Long John Silver’s survey online to compliment Magano for her help. “I was so embarrassed in that moment that I don’t remember if I thanked her [for] any of that,” he said. He attempted to visit the restaurant the next day to thank Magano in person, but she had left for her vacation.
So he did the only other thing he could think of – he went online to the Fox San Antonio news station KABB and nominated Magano for their program, Cash for Kindness. The program awards someone for a selfless act of kindness with $1,000.
A few weeks later, KABB reporter Ryan Wolf contacted Paulk and let him know that Magano had been chosen. When the day arrived that Wolf and Paulk went to the restaurant, the plan went off without a hitch. “I met with Ryan and his camera guy,” Paulk said.
“They did a little pre-interview, about 10 minutes out of sight of the restaurant, and then went in and surprised her,” Paulk said. “They awarded her with the money, and it was really good. It felt really good for her to get that recognition,” he said.
I couldn’t do anything like that, other than just simply saying, ‘Thank you.’ But that just didn’t seem enough.”
After her award, Magano said, “I know how easy it is to lose something, and no one wants to help.” Paulk said he later learned that his online survey to praise Magano never went through. “So I was really glad that it worked out that she got the Cash for Kindness recognition,” he said. All in all, he said, the lesson learned was that “kindness is free.”
“We need more kindness. At the same time, you never know what you’re going to get out of it, if that person’s going to go on to do something for someone else that’s even bigger, if it’s going to affect someone in a bigger way, or if they’re going to turn around and hand you a $20 bill,” Paulk said. Watch below to see Wolf and Paulk’s surprise!
