People are donating to a Starbucks employee in San Diego after he decided not to serve a woman who refused to wear a mask in the store as cases of the coronavirus surge in California.
More than $20,000 has been raised for Lenin Gutierrez, an employee at a San Diego Starbucks who was confronted by a customer demanding to be served even though she wasn’t wearing a mask. The customer, Amber Lynn Gilles, posted Gutierrez’s picture on Facebook and wrote that next time she would call the police if Gutierrez didn’t serve her without a mask.
A GoFundMe page was established after the Facebook post went viral, and money poured in to support Gutierrez’s decision to refuse service.
“Raising money for Lenin for his honorable effort standing his ground when faced with a Karen in the wild,” wrote Matt Cowan, the creator of the GoFundMe page.
Cowan told a local San Diego outlet that he was blown away by the number of donations the page had received.
“I set it at $1,000, thinking that was a reach, but we would be lucky if we hit like $250, and when we hit $100, I was overwhelmed by that,” Cowan said.
Gutierrez posted a thank you video on Facebook Tuesday, saying he would use the money to fund his dream to become a dancer.
“With this donation, I can make these dreams a reality,” Gutierrez said. “I can fuel my passion even better now,”
