Donnie Wahlberg is “starting 2020 off like the amazing man he is,” according to wife Jenny McCarthy, who was there to witness his first good deed of the year.
On New Year’s Day, the “Blue Bloods” star and the TV personality dined at an IHOP near their St. Charles, Illinois, home. After the meal, Wahlberg left their server a $2,020 tip on their $78.46 bill. A proud McCarthy then shared a photo of said receipt on Twitter, which included her husband’s handwritten “Thanks Bethany,” “2020 Tip Challenge” and “Happy New Year” notes.
The “2020 Tip Challenge” appears to have started Dec. 30 when a server at Thunder Bay River Restaurant in Michigan received a $2,020 tip on a $23 bill.
. @DonnieWahlberg starting 2020 off like the amazing man he is. #ihop #2020tipchallenge
🥰 pic.twitter.com/AjAEN0hqL6— Jenny McC-Wahlberg (@JennyMcCarthy) January 1, 2020
But this isn’t the first time Donnie’s gone over and beyond for his restaurant servers. In 2017, the New Kids on the Block singer left $500 for Waffle House employees in Maryland who were working the night shift. He also left a $2,000 tip, front-row concert tickets and backstage passes for Waffle House servers in North Carolina.
“My mom waited tables, and my dad tended bars — for years!” he captioned an Instagram post at the time. “So, when I walk into a #WaffleHouse, and the staff treats me like a king, you better believe I treat them like queens! Thanks to the team at @wafflehouseofficial Charlotte, NC!”
The IHOP employee who received Wahlberg’s $2,020 tip is 37-year-old Bethany Provencher, a single mom who was overwhelmed by the hefty surprise.
“I’ve loved Donnie my whole life — I was a very big New Kids on the Block fan when I was a kid,” she told PEOPLE. “I didn’t want to freak out at the table, so I went into the bathroom and freaked out a little. I was like, ‘Oh my god!'”
“I served them the best I could do,” she explained. “He folded up the receipt and he gave it to me, and told me not to open it until he left. I said, ‘Okay, thank you, guys, come again. I’ll take care of you again.’ Then I open it, and I almost fell to the floor.”
“I just started crying,” she recalled. “I couldn’t believe it. I mean, who does that? It was a blessing. I just moved into an apartment, I’m a single mother — by myself with my son. So I struggle every day to make ends meet. And now I can buy furniture and put some money in the bank, and make sure my son is good.”
Shortly after the famous couple left the establishment, Bethany received a phone call from Donnie at the restaurant. She said she “really wanted to thank him and Jenny because they don’t even understand what they did for me.”
“God put him there for a reason for me, and I know that,” she said. “It’s the greatest thing to ever happen in my life.”
When the celebrity twosome isn’t changing people’s lives, they’re busy being couple goals. In fact, for the first time in a decade, they spent New Year’s Eve at home with their family instead of in New York City’s Times Square, where McCarthy has co-hosted ABC’s Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve since 2010.
“Sending love and light to all our friends and familia on this warm and toasty #NewYearsEve!” Wahlberg captioned their precious selfie.
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