A Michigan pizzeria has redefined what it means to “go the extra mile” with a stunning show of generosity and compassion toward a long-time customer.
When living in Battle Creek some 25 years ago, Rich Morgan and his wife Julie would take home “Steve’s Pizza” every payday. It was a special treat for the hardworking couple, even though money was often tight.
But the couple’s recent plans to return to their favorite eatery were thwarted when Rich was rushed to the emergency room. The news was bad — Rich was coming to the final stages of his drawn-out cancer battle. So, in an effort to bring him some comfort, Julie’s father, David Dalke, asked if the pizzeria could arrange to send the couple a card.
“I thought maybe just some contact from Steve’s Pizza, maybe a note, I thought I might be asking too much, but I contacted them,” Dalke told the Battle Creek Enquirer.
However, upon hearing about Morgan’s condition, the restaurant decided to go much further.
“Well, what kind of pizza do they like?” manager Dalton Shaffer asked Dalke. When he clarified that Julie and Rich were 200 miles away in Indianapolis, Shaffer simply replied that he would arrange a special delivery for a 16-inch pepperoni and mushroom pizza that very night — he would be driving all that way to personally present the couple with their favorite order.
The most amazing part? Steve’s doesn’t deliver.
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“And so, while Rich and I slept, at 2:30 a.m., Dalton rolled into our driveway, left the car running and delivered two extra special pizzas to my waiting family,” Julie Morgan explained in a Facebook post. “He told them we were in his prayers, and offered to help in any way he could.”
Shaffer refused the couple’s offer to be put up in a hotel for the night. He wanted to hit the road he could make it back for work in the morning, he said.
“I just wanted to do that for them,” he told the Battle Creek Enquirer. “I just wanted to make them happy.”
Shaffer, who is the the nephew of Steve’s Pizza owner, Jeremy Shaffer, added that he just hoped people “could keep that family in mind and pray for them.”
As for Julie, she said she was “beyond overwhelmed” by Shaffer’s wonderful show of kindness.
“Dalton brought our family so much joy – and the best pizza in the world – at a really difficult time. While ‘thank you’ hardly seems adequate – from the bottom of my heart, thank you, Dalton from Steve’s Pizza in Battle Creek, MI for making your epic middle of the night pizza delivery!” Julie wrote.
Shaffer traveled nearly 500 miles in total to deliver the special pizza.
“I took a couple 5-hour Energys,” Shaffer shared. “I had to, I was super tired, but I made it and that’s what counts. It was worth it. I’m glad I did that.”
“He was just delightful,” Dalke said of the extraordinary delivery driver, according to Michigan Live. “He’s just an outstanding man who has his heart in the right place.”
“My gosh we need people like this in the world. We need other people to be this way,” he added.
That is customer service on a whole new level! Amazing.