“Together we can change the world, one good deed at a time.” – Anonymous
Wednesday morning at the Dunkin Donuts on Route 13 in Bristol Township Paying it Forward (PIF) came to life in the form of customers paying for each others coffee and donuts.
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Social media posts on personal accounts brought the reported good deeds to light Wednesday afternoon as Jennifer Weiss Pierce, wife of Edgely Fire Companies Chief Carl, was the first to share her ‘pay it forward’ experience.
Pierce wrote: “So at dunkin this morning, the guy at window said nine cars in front of me each car had paid for the one behind it. Well except the chick in front of me. So I paid mine and the car behind me. Pay it forward…i’m not going to be the one to end the chain of do-gooder this morning. Happy Wednesday!”
From there, LevittowNow asked if any other readers had heard or been a part of the good neighborly acts and what followed was a connection made between Pierce and Chrissy Safee Gilbert who received “coffee and a bagel” because Pierce paid for it and thanked her profusely. “Jennifer Weiss Pierce thank you for being so sweet and paying it forward! It made my coffee and bagel taste even better this morning and just made my whole day! You are awesome!
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Gilbert explained she was the car behind Pierce’s and added she also paid it forward and behind
The concept, according to historians, of PIF was born out the idea from a book written by Lilly Harden Hammond 1n 1918 called In the Garden of Delight. The PIF concept is also part of the foundation contract law of loans and third party beneficiaries.
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Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay called compensation, published in 1841, had the following to say about the fundamental principles of PIF: “In the order of nature we cannot render benefits to those from whom we receive them, or only seldom. But the benefit we receive must be rendered again, line for line, deed for deed, cent for cent, to somebody.”
Hammond wrote, “you don’t pay love back, you pay it forward.’”
The book, and subsequent movie, “Pay it Forward” by Catherine Ryan Hyde, dealt with the spirituality of the human condition when paying it forward, which leads to present day Levittown’s version at the drive through window of Dunkin Donuts Gilbert said, thanks to Facebook I was able to find the nice woman who paid for me” and pay it forward also.
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On the phone last night, Cheri Paduluse who was a part of the pay it forward drive through experience simply said, “it was so cool to be a part of something in Levittown. It really was.
“I did that this morning. Went to pay for my coffee and he said it was on the van in front of me so I gave them the money and said it’s for the person behind me,” Dave Snyder Sr. said.
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Will you pay it forward today? And how?
Thanks to all who participated and responded to the post on LevittownNow.com It was a pleasure writing this story.
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–Jeff
From the 2000 movie “Pay it Forward”
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Trevor McKenney:
“I think some people are too scared, or something. I guess it’s hard for people who are so used to things the way they are – even if they’re bad – to change. ‘Cause they kind of give up. And when they do, everybody kind of loses.”
