These teen employees were working at Dutch Bros Coffee in Vancouver, Washington one morning when they noticed a drive-thru customers was very upset.
Instead of handing her her coffee and letting her drive off, they asked if she was okay and offered to talk if she needed someone to listen.
They recognized her as a regular customer and had never seen her upset like this before.
She opened up and let them know that her husband had died just the previous night. He was only 37 years old.
She was getting coffee for some sense of normalcy, but was still understandably still very shaken up and in tears.
19-year-old Pierce Dunn could see she was distraught and alerted his coworkers to it as well. He gave her the coffee for free and then it “just kind of happened”. He and some of the other Dutch Bros employees leaned out the drive-thru window and held the newly widowed woman’s hand.
They all prayed together.
While they were praying, the woman next in line, Barbara Denner, saw the whole exchange and snapped a photo.
She then posted it to the company’s Facebook page and praised the young employees for their kindness.
“Snapped this picture while waiting in line at the Dutch Bros on 138th Avenue today. Turns out the young lady in line ahead of us lost her 37-year-old husband last night. When the DB guys & gals noticed she was falling apart, they stopped everything and prayed with her for several minutes, invited her to come back for prayer and support, as well as anything else that she might need. Prayers for the young family, and you know where to stop for coffee!”
The post went viral and has earned more than 400,000 likes, and almost 150,000 shares.
A lot of Facebook users chimed in, commenting on what a beautiful story it was. Many saying they’ve always had amazing customer service experiences at Dutch Bros.
Perhaps the service is not always this level of above and beyond, but it seems the staff there have a reputation for being good, honest and caring people.
21-year-old Evan Freeman, who can be seen reaching around for the woman’s hand from behind his friends, doesn’t even identify as religious.
But he didn’t hesitate to pray for the stranger at the drive-thru who clearly just needed some support in a difficult time.
“She could have said she wanted an apple, and I would have gone and planted a tree and grown her an apple. It just happened to be religion that she wanted.” – Evan Freeman
As you can imagine, the store manager was thrilled when she saw the news.
And not just because it was good for business, but she was proud of her young staff.
“I started studying a little more and I was like, ‘wait, that’s Evan and Pierce and that’s my stand, those are my kids!’ and it just brought me to tears right then.” – Jessica Chudek, owner
The world needs more of the love and kindheartedness these boys exhibited at work. And without even knowing they were being caught on camera!
Pierce had some wise words, hoping to inspire more people to make small contributions that could change the world.
“If every single person did an act of kindness or had a smile on their face every single day, the world would be a completely different place.” – Pierce Dunn
Watch the video below for more!
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
