Cobleskill Dunkin’ Donuts employee, Elijah Johnson, giving Julie Gathen coffee, conversation, and a smile that she appreciates making a nice difference in her routine.
By Heather Skinner
COBLESKILL — Julie Gathen shared that a coffee experience might seem small, but, “You don’t think about it until you sit and think about it. I think the simple things go farther than people realize.”
After Gathen’s visit to Dunkin’ Donuts to treat herself on the morning of June 13th, she took to The Cobleskill Community Bulletin Board Facebook group to post, “To the gentleman working the drive thru at dunking this morning, you are going far with the level of customer service skills you possess, I hope you have a wonderful day and thank you for helping my morning start off right with a kind smile and conversation!”
Not knowing the employee’s name, Gathen posted in hopes of, “implementing the seed of an idea of like, hey, maybe just smile at somebody today. Or tell somebody they did a good deed to pat somebody on the back, because life’s hard for everybody right now. So, I figured, even a post about it, whether it reached him or not, maybe it would inspire somebody to be nicer to somebody else; to try to make somebody else’s day. It was a knee-jerk reaction of ‘you did a good job,’ I want to praise you for your good job. And, I hope the right people see that he did a good job so that maybe it boosts his career and gets him to somewhere that he needs to be in life.”
The comments started pouring in as other Dunkin’ customers tried to speculate which employee was being referenced and shared their good experiences; Jamie Pisano commented, “There’s a new guy there that is very kind. I wonder if it’s the same one.” Sarah Beretz Welsh commented, “Yes super nice this morning as I went through Dunkin.” While others commented: “It’s SO refreshing to hear something GOOD.” - Lori Nobles, and “Kindness goes a long way.” - Penny Wainwright. One community member named John Tatlock even commented with a suggestion that, “Someone should start a go fund me and send the Gentleman off to funding for college,” and complimented, “sounds like he was brought up right great parenting.”
Dunkin’ Donuts staff and the parents of the employee in question ended up seeing the post. Elijah Johnson has previous work experience at The Iroquois Museum and Schoharie Valley Farms, working at Dunkin’ Donuts since February. Johnson said when his parents showed him the post and all the wonderful comments, “It made my day!”
Johnson was an only child for 11 years and was homeschooled. Being a social person, he said talking with people every day at Dunkin’ Donuts boosts his mood in return. Johnson credits the impact that having belief in the bible has had on his life, especially over the past year, and the supportive community at Valley Bible Baptist Church with Pastor Rob Sisco. Johnson added, “The bible says, ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself’, so I just treat everyone how I want to be treated.”
Johnson also credited his co-workers saying, “The team here…there is no way I could do this by myself.” Gathen and many commenters on her Facebook post shared that sentiment with statements like, “I think ALL of the crew at Cobleskill Dunkin are exceptional and hard working.” -Linda Fox. On any given day you can walk into Dunkin’ and witness a regular customer greeted by name and by staff who remember their usual order.
Johnson admits it took him a minute to figure out how to start conversations with customers while working the drive-though, but now he’s so good at it, sometimes he needs a reminder to keep the line moving. He always tries to uplift those visiting Dunkin’ by giving a pick-me-up when he can tell they are having a bad day, and loves getting to surprise people when they go to hand him money for their order and he gets to tell them the customer ahead of them was spreading kindness and paid for the order behind them.
Gathen noted, “a lot of people in the county have jobs working with other people, so kindness really goes a long way, I think.” The domino effect of smiles and kindness passed along from Johnson at Dunkin’ Donuts, then to people Gathen greets during her workday at Schoharie County Community Action Program, can keep passing along from person to person in the community all day long, uplifting everyone as they go about each day in Schoharie County.
If you were wondering what Gathen’s regular order is, she got a large french vanilla iced coffee with cream and liquid sugar, then Johnson flashed his kind smile before bidding farewell with, “Have a great day!”
Gathen expressed, “You can never have too much kindness. Plus, everybody’s so divided now, it’s just really nice to have neutral kindness, no questions asked; just a simple, ‘hey how are you?’ ‘What are your plans for the day?’ ‘I hope they go great!’”
Johnson is preparing for college in CA where he will be studying youth ministry and music. His plans are to help teens and go wherever he feels the Lord leads him and wherever there is a need for his services. He imparted, “In Matthew the bible says, ‘let your light so shine upon men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven.’ That is really my goal, that they can see me and know that it was God, not me; he changed my life significantly. I only keep growing and keep getting better.”
Gathen was thankful for Johnson giving her a nice, cheerful start to her Friday, and the boost she needed to get through to the weekend. “You realize where you get your coffee, and the people who make it, are important in the process of getting a coffee to start your day.” Gathen also shared the reminder, “Just be nice to people, everybody needs it.”
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