United Gospel Rescue Mission gets $200 tip for eclipse lunch

Sharing the community’s spirit of giving Monday earned the United Gospel Rescue Mission a nice tip.

Rev. Greg Kirk said he always wants to get the mission’s message to people as well as raise funds. The solar eclipse over Poplar Bluff gave him and his staff an opportunity to let others know about the mission’s programs while selling food at the Margaret Harwell Art Museum for the solar eclipse festivities.

“We made about $500 plus the $200 tip from the couple who lives in Cocoa Beach, Florida, who came to see the eclipse over Poplar Bluff,” Kirk said.

“This lady came up and she wants to know, did we take card or anything other than cash,” Kirk said. “I said, no we weren’t prepared for that. She says,‘Okay.’ She goes, “Well, I was going to buy lunch for me and my husband. We’ve been here all day but we don’t have any cash.’”

Kirk replied, “We’ll just give you lunch for free.”

“You don’t have to do that,” she replied.

During the conversation, she noticed Kirk’s Air Force hat and said, “Oh, my husband’s a veteran.”

Kirk asked to meet him. As they visited Kirk handed him one of his business cards. On the back of the card is the QR code which tells about the ministry and how to get to the website.

The couple went to the website paid for their meal, plus some. They left a $200 donation as a tip.

The Florida couple had been going to Paducah, Kentucky, when they noticed cloud cover was expected there, Kirk shared. They didn’t know anything about Poplar Bluff, but saw the art museum’s event online.

“It was really nice,” Kirk said. “I know there was a ton of people at the high school. I went there and looked through the binoculars from the top by the command post by the school. I looked down, and there were tons of people down there.”

The art museum staff asked Kirk to serve lunch, and the Mission sold chicken, hamburgers and hot dogs for $4-$6 apiece, plus sides for a dollar.

“It was a pretty cheap lunch. We weren’t gouging anybody. We were trying to make a little money for the rescue mission,” Kirk said. “These people came up, we weren’t prepared to take a card or anything. We just got to talking, because of my big mouth I talked to everybody.”

He didn’t get their names.

“They’re just the people from Cocoa Beach,” he said. “They texted me a couple of times on my phone, saying ‘We’re going send you a donation.’”

Kirk added, “The great thing is so many people came to our town and a lot of people at the art museum, they weren’t from our town, necessarily. Because we had men there, we got to tell them what we do and, people learned about what our shelter does and what we do in our town.”