海角大神

After serving the same patron for almost a year, a waitress in a Times Square restaurant received the tip of a lifetime last week. The check: $43.50. Her tip: $3,000.

The customer, a New Yorker named Mike who wished to remain anonymous, said he simply wanted to pay it forward.

"This woman had been serving us for almost a year now. She's a lovely individual, and she talked about how she was served an eviction notice last month," Mike .

Even more monumental than the tip was the story behind it. Mike didn't just leave a large tip. He left his waitress some very specific instructions, written in a note along with the check.聽"Thank you for your kindness and humility. My teacher in middle school had such a difficult experience a few years ago which has sparked me to do this," he wrote, including a list of requirements.

1)聽Go to and learn!
2)聽Don鈥檛 let pay it forward end with you.
3)聽Since it is about the idea and not about you, or me, if you decide to share this, please don鈥檛 use either of our names!

"Thanks for always being around for all of my shows off and on Broadway," he continued. "I hope that one day someone gives as much love and happiness into the world as you do.鈥澛�

The teacher who inspired the anonymous tipper is Richard Specht, a middle school science teacher at the Great Hollow Middle School in Nesconset, N.Y. Mr. Specht and his wife, Samantha, started a foundation, "ReesSpecht Life," a pay-it-forward movement, after the death of his 22-month-old son, Richard Edwin-Ehmer Specht, affectionately known as Rees, in a drowning accident in 2012.

鈥淚t happened two days before Hurricane Sandy," "Then we went through the storm and lost our power for two weeks and it was a nightmare on top of a nightmare. We had people coming from all over to help us 鈥� a landscaping company came and redid our yard and wouldn鈥檛 take any payment from us, friends and family brought food and wouldn鈥檛 let us pay them back. So we decided to pay people back anonymously. If we couldn鈥檛 pay it back we鈥檇 pay it forward.鈥�

The foundation was launched to inspire people to pay kindness forward in Rees鈥檚 memory. The Spechts have distributed more than 100,000 business cards with the foundation name encouraging others to pay it forward, and have a with over 52,000 likes."

"I met Mr. Specht in eighth grade 鈥� I was his science student 鈥� and he's an incredible human being," "To see something so horrible happen to him ... it doesn't surprise me that he would start a foundation out of something so horrible that would just continue to keep good around and to keep wonderful things going. It was heart-wrenching for me to see it happen. I had been trying to pay it forward and this was just a big opportunity for me to be able to honor someone that's so wonderful."

When Specht heard about the monumental tip, he said he was shocked.

鈥淚 got an email from this young lady on Wednesday night with a photo attached, and I couldn鈥檛 believe it. My mouth hit the floor,鈥� Specht told Yahoo Parenting. The email was from the Times Square waitress, who included a picture of the check, tip, and note that mentioned Specht's foundation. 鈥淚 started crying. I really wanted to run upstairs and wake up my wife, but I just couldn鈥檛. So instead I looked at one of Rees鈥檚 pictures and I talked to him and I said 鈥業 can鈥檛 believe you inspired this.鈥� It was a surreal moment.鈥�

Even though Mike's large tip made headlines, Specht said even small acts of kindness can make a big difference, and encouraged those who came across his story to pay it forward.

鈥淲e lose track of the fact that it鈥檚 the small things we do that cumulatively make a difference,鈥� 鈥淚 want people to focus on those small acts so we can regain that sense of community and compassion and respect...I want to make the world a kinder place.鈥�