Hiawatha couple decides to 'pay it forward' with big tip

CEDAR RAPIDS — Makenzie and Steven Schultz of Hiawatha left a big tip for their waiter this weekend, but it wasn't for speedy service.

And now, their story has gone viral on social media.

Makenzie Schultz said she and her husband were celebrating their anniversary Saturday night at Kazoku, a new downtown Cedar Rapids sushi restaurant.

Kyle Hanson was their server. He said Monday he walked into the full restaurant about 5:15 p.m. Saturday after another server called in with a family emergency.

'It was pretty stressful, but I mean what are your options? You can either freak out or just do what needs to be done,' Hanson said.

The Schultzes said the service was slow, but said they have spent a fair amount of time waiting tables themselves, and they decided it wasn't worth it to get upset.

'We just kind of switched our mindset into, 'let's just enjoy dinner and our anniversary,' and everything, yeah, just took a long time,' Makenzie Schultz said.

At the end of the night, when they received their bill, the couple wrote, 'We've both been in your shoes. Paying it forward.'

They added a happy face.

And a $100 tip.

Hanson said Monday he just wants to say thank you.

'That was super unexpected and really nice. I mean, it caught me off guard. I expected — I wasn't expecting that. A little misty, I guess. I don't know, it was a very good ending to a really stressful night,' Hanson said.

The story doesn't end there, however.

More than 1.4 million people from around the world have 'liked' the story of the incident on Makenzie Schultz's Facebook page.

'I have hundreds of messages,' she said, from people in several different countries who were inspired by the couple's kind action to a stranger.

'When I decided to post it on Facebook, it was more so, not about the dollar amount, but just about — If we could all just take a step back when we are in these types of circumstance and just realize that we could grace the world with a little bit more kindness and generosity and patience. The world would be such a beautiful place if we could all just do that,' Makenzie Schultz said.