Evoni Williams, Waffle House Worker Gets College Scholarship For Act Of Kindness

A teen waitress at a Waffle House in Texas has been rewarded for a seemingly small gesture at the restaurant outside in Houston with a college scholarship after she was photographed cutting up food for a 78-year-old diner, who was unable to do it himself, reports said Sunday.

Evoni Williams, 18, a recent Texas City High School graduate, was honored at a ceremony last Thursday with a $16,000 scholarship to Texas Southern University so she can fulfill her dreams of studying business management. Williams was reportedly working full-time at the Waffle House restaurant in order to earn money for college.

The incident took place last weekend in La Marque, Texas, when Williams was serving an elderly man breakfast and he needed help.

"I had no coordination, no feeling, and strength in my hands," Adrian Charpentier, the customer told ABC 13 News.

So Williams leaned over the counter with a fork and a knife and cut up his ham for the 78-year-old. A patron sitting behind Charpentier took a picture of the gesture and posted it to Facebook.

"I don't know her name but I heard this elderly man tell her his hands don't work too good," Laura Wolf wrote, describing how Williams stepped in and immediately began cutting his food. "This may seem small but to him, I’m sure it was huge.”

Wolf concluded her post saying: "I’m thankful to have seen this act of kindness and caring at the start of my day while everything in this world seems so negative. If we could all be like this waitress and take time to offer a helping hand."

"I didn't know the photo was taken until a couple hours later," Williams told the Houston Chronicle. "When I saw it, it's just something I would do for anybody."

Wolf told KHOU, "It was so busy in here, and she actually took the time to stop and hear what he had to say instead of walking past him. That just meant something to me."

Wolf’s documentation of the waitress’ act of kindness soon went viral and thousands of people expressed their desire to reward the teen. Over 140,000 people had reacted to the Facebook post and more than 70,000 have shared it at the time of publishing this story. Texas Southern University has reportedly assigned a counselor to help Williams begin her degree, KHOU reported.

"We wanted to reward Evoni's act of kindness and let her know that good deeds do not go unnoticed," said Melinda Spaulding, an administrator at Texas Southern University. "She has the character of the type of students we want at Texas Southern University."

The mayor of La Marque, Bobby Hocking, decided to express his gratitude for Williams as well — by declaring March 8, 2018 as Evoni "Nini" Williams Day, a day in her honor.

"Somebody tagged me and it immediately, it just touched my heart," he said. "It's so wonderful that the younger generation cares about the older generation."

Surprised by the response by people, Williams told KHOU: "I got my own day. It’s something I would do any other day."