Viral video draws international attention to Lexington man’s final wish
tipsalot
In July, Seth Collins (left) issued Puccini’s server Sarah Ward a $500 tip to honor a request in his late brother’s will. PHOTO BY ROBBIE CLARK
Last month, Chevy Chase eatery Puccini’s Smiling Teeth and a Lexington family and waitress unexpectedly found their 15 minutes of fame when a YouTube video of an exchange at the restaurant went viral, garnering more than 2,000,000 views in the first few days it was posted.
Taken on July 10, the video captured the family of Aaron Collins, a young man who had passed away at the age of 30 less than two weeks before, tipping their waitress $500 to honor one of Aaron’s last wishes as expressed in an online will he created more than a year before his unexpected passing. In addition to asking that any debt to his parents be repaid should he have money in the bank, Aaron also had the following request:
“Leave an awesome tip – and I don’t mean 25 percent, I mean $500 on a pizza – for a waiter or waitress.”
Just under three minutes long, the video starts at the end of the family’s lunch at Puccini’s, with Aaron’s brother Seth, 32, handing their server $500 in cash as she delivers change to the table for their tab, which included two pizzas and a pitcher of beer at a total of around $70. Seth explained to the server, Kenwick resident Sarah Ward, that his brother had recently passed away and that the overly generous tip was one of his last wishes. He also explains on the video that he had set up a website, AaronCollins.Org, to document the experience and take donations for the cause, which had raised just over $500 at the time, primarily from friends and family members.
The next day, Seth uploaded the video to YouTube (with Ward’s permission), so that the family and friends who had contributed to the first $500 could watch the exchange.
“By Wednesday night, about 300 people had watched the video,” Collins said, adding that he was surprised already at how much money had been donated and how many people had stumbled across the video.
Over the course of the next day, the video landed on the radar of a handful of news and news aggregating sites, including Lexington-based Fark, Reddit and Consumerist, all of which shared the video; views started multiplying rapidly and before Friday, the video and story had been picked up by even more major news sites.
“After it hit Huffington Post, there was just no controlling it,” Seth said. “It went to AOL and MSN and Yahoo – it was everywhere on Friday.”
Ward, whose emotional reaction to the tip was central to the public appeal, admits the media attention was a bit overwhelming – she was contacted by CNN and “Inside Edition” reserved the right for an exclusive video interview by the end of the weekend.
“It went from 20,000 to 600,000 in like three hours when I was sleeping,” Ward recalls. “When my mom told me it was 20,000 views, I freaked out. I just turned everything off and hid.”
Remarkably, the video drew hundreds of supporters from around the world to donate to AaronCollins.org, in increments ranging from $.10 to $1,000 – at press time, the site had raised over $44,000 and Seth was in the process of filing for non-profit status.
Despite the initial overwhelming nature of being forced in the international media spotlight, Ward and Seth have both reveled in the joy that the video has brought so many viewers around the world.
“The experience has been better than the money,” said Ward, who gave $50 to each employee she was working with that day, including the kitchen staff. In addition to the unique friendship she’s forged with Seth, she added that a highlight of the entire experience has been “being part of a conversation that inspires people to focus on generosity and the working class.”
For Seth and his family, the experience has been an invaluable means to pay it forward for Aaron, and to continue to keep his spirit alive.
“It’s been a healthy distraction, I guess, and given me something to focus on,” Seth said. “It’s also let me sort of keep Aaron’s spirit with me, and for Mom I think that’s been the biggest thing for her – getting to see the nice things people are saying, and getting e-mails telling her how amazing Aaron must have been, and that has really made it much less sad for us. It’s kind of hard to be sad when you see how many people it’s made happy.”
While the immediate press attention has died down in the weeks following the initial rush, Seth and his family are still hard at work with regular dining outings to continue to honor Aaron’s last wish. Seth continues to post the videos of the tip-giving on YouTube and at AaronCollins.org, and while they may not be getting millions of views at this point, Seth is just grateful that the kindness of strangers from all over the world has allowed his family to continue issuing the tips.
“Honestly, if every week, five - 10,000 people watch, that’s awesome,” he said. I would rather do it more slowly and get to do it over a longer period than burn through it all in six months.”
“I’d like to be doing it five years from now or even 10 years from now,” he added.
To view the video of the first $500 tip on YouTube, click here. Additional $500 tip videos can be seen here, here and here.