OMAHA, Neb. -- 2020 has been a lot.

“Covid has been hard” Stella’s server Stephanie Schendt said. “Like you didn’t expect--like when you first heard about it you didn’t expect it to be like this.”

Schendt has served at Stella’s for ten years so she’s no stranger to the anxiety of the job. But this year - for obvious reasons - has been different.

“We struggle a lot then watching the owners struggle, that’s hard,” Schendt said.

An Omaha group called ‘Keep Local Alive’ knew this was the position a lot of small business employees were in, so they started cooking up a plan to bring whatever relief they could to Stella’s.

“Send me, Venmo me, pay-pal me, whatever amount you want," said Bobby Johnson, creator of ‘Keep Local Alive’, "I’m going to give away all those funds, I’m going to find a locally owned independent restaurant and I’m going to give that entire group of donations to a lucky server."

Bobby Johnson and a group of friends captured the moment. Schendt can be seen looking at the tip, and gasping before shouting, "No way."

$500 dollars, from the Omaha community to Schendt.

“My heart was literally pounding,” Schendt said.

Tips are split at Stella’s so everyone was equally shocked and exciter. Schendt even paying it forward by donating to the next big tip.

“Kindness can be spread, even if it’s one person at a time you have to start somewhere,” Schendt said.