When it comes to acts of kindness Taco Bell isn’t usually the kind of place that comes to mind, but thanks to a young employee’s interaction with a customer, that’s exactly what happened.
Caleb Francis leads the ordinary life of an 18-year-old, and finds himself in that awkward period that many of us faced ourselves after education and before full-time work.
It seemed like an ordinary day
Caleb currently works at Taco Bell, saving up cash while he figures out what’s next in store for him.
Caleb might not be at school anymore, but his education does occasionally come in handy at work – though he never thought that one elective would.
Being the sort of person to try something different, Caleb had gone for this specific elective because he wanted to step out of the box. He recalled to News 5 Cleveland:
“I didn’t want to take art, I didn’t want to take ceramics…everyone I know here takes Spanish, French, my dad speaks French.”
So he went for sign language, studying it for two years – but he never imagined he would have a practical use for it.
That all changed one day when he was working a day shift at Taco Bell, and he noticed that there was a deaf customer stood in line.
The customer, Caleb realized, was in need of some help. They looked lost and confused, and Caleb knew that he could help. He recalled:
“He wanted a side of salsa and sour cream but he didn’t know how to order a side of salsa and sour cream, and then we just kind of started communicating through that.”
Helping a man in need
Caleb was helping the man just like anyone would, but a fellow customer, who was touched by what they saw, knew they had to film the whole thing.
The next thing Caleb knew, the video of him signing with the deaf customer had gone viral online
The video was shared more than 200 times in a period of two days, but Caleb humbly refuses to take credit for what he did. He said:
“I think the biggest misconception about this is people say, ‘Oh, you probably made his day like so much easier,’ and all that stuff… but what people don’t understand is it’s just exciting for me to get to sign to people as it is for anybody else. So when someone says, ‘Oh, I sign,’ it’s like ‘Oh!’ It’s just so exciting to me.”
Whatever Caleb says, the world thinks he’s a superstar for stepping up to help a customer in need when he could have quite easily been too intimidated to put his signing skills to the test.
And word has spread about Caleb’s talent, too, as 3 other deaf people have visited the store to sign orders to him.
According to Caleb’s proud manager, he’s “so super” with customers – the perfect employee for a customer-serving job.
But it’s unlikely that Caleb will want to work at Taco Bell forever, so perhaps his future career should involve sign language, as he certainly seems to have nailed it!
An inspiration to others
Caleb’s inspirational story highlights the importance of sign language. It’s certainly more useful than a foreign language.
To watch the heartwarming interaction for yourself click the video below. We’re so happy Caleb was there to help the man!
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