Regina waitress raises $2,750 for local shelter

A Regina waitress is giving back to her community in a big way.

Lindsay Patton, a waitress at the Chuka Boulevard Boston Pizza, donated all her tips for the month of October to the Souls Harbour Rescue Mission. In all, she collected $2,750. Those tips were also matched by Boston Pizza, resulting in a total of $5,500 being donated to Souls Harbour.

Patton says she wanted to do something positive in the city.

“COVID has been very hard on everybody, financially,” Patton said. “I just thought that support needs to be kept really local right now, and I wanted to give money back to my community because this is where I grew up.

“This was very important to me.”

Patton says she hadn’t anticipated Boston Pizza would match her donation when she brought up the idea to the company.

“I had mentioned it to one of the corporate Boston Pizza guys and he had said that they would maybe be interested in adding to my donation, but I never expected them to match it,” she said.

“I really never expected to make as much money as I did.”

Patton explained her goal to restaurant patrons, and they were happy to get on board.

“At the end of the night I mentioned to whoever I was serving that they’re never obligated to tip, but if they decided to tip it would be going to the rescue mission,” she said. “I think a lot of people ended up tipping more than what they usually would have because of this.”

She says she would do it again, and that she hopes it will inspire others to do the same.

“I think it’s important to encourage everyone right now to donate or help in any way they can. Different organizations need the help more than ever,” she said. “I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to do something like this to do it, because it was an awesome experience.

“It feels very rewarding.”