Students Wow Pizza Guy With 10,000% Tip

James Gilpin says $1,268 tip couldn't have come at a better time
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 10, 2014 11:11 AM CDT
Students Wow Pizza Guy With 10,000% Tip
Domino's Pizza deliveryman James Gilpin is seen in this photo from Oct. 9, 2014.   (AP Photo/The Chronicle-Tribune, Jeff Morehead)

Indiana Wesleyan University students attend mandatory chapel service each week, and when chapel speaker Keith Newman ordered pizza Wednesday morning as 3,000 students gathered inside, "I thought we were all going to get pizza," a student says. Instead, a Domino's Pizza deliveryman got a big shock—and an even bigger tip, WRTV Indianapolis reports. Newman, CEO of Residential Education for the school, soon explained "we were going to bless him with an offering," the student says. As James Gilpin delivered the $12.50 order for two pizzas, he was presented with a $1,268 tip from students, $70 in gift cards, a piece of cake, and thousands of inspirational notes written only minutes before. His reaction: "I was just in awe," Gilpin tells WISH, which notes it takes him about a month to make that much in tips.

"I just want to thank you for all your hard work," one letter in his stack read. "No one else may see it, but I do. Never stop working hard for your dreams because you can accomplish anything." Gilpin tells ABC News the moment "didn't sink in until about two hours afterwards," but "I thought it was very nice for an average Joe like me to get something like that." He adds, "It couldn't have been a better time because I was struggling bad." Gilpin says he'll use the money to pay off some bills, fix his car and roof, and help provide for his two young kids at Christmas. As for the premise of the nontraditional service, Newman says, "Just because you can't do everything doesn't mean you can't do something." (More uplifting news stories.)

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