A Waffle House waitress who was captured on camera performing a good deed has been given a $16,000 scholarship from Texas Southern University.
After a photo of Evoni Williams helping an elderly customer cut up his food at the Texas restaurant went viral, the 18-year-old server was rewarded for her act of kindness with a significant bump to her college fund as well as her own day in the city of La Marque.
“He was like, ‘My hands are not functioning too well,” Williams told KHOU 11. “He needed me to cut his food. And I did.”
The picture was taken by Laura Wolf, another patron sitting nearby, and then posted on Facebook. “I don’t know her name but I heard this elderly man tell her his hands don’t work too good,” Wolf captioned the shot. “He was also on oxygen and struggling to breathe. Without hesitation, she took his plate and began cutting up his ham. This may seem small but to him, I’m sure it was huge.”
Texas Southern has also assigned a counselor to Williams to help her get the enrollment process started.
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Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com