Freeloaders need lesson in manners

On March 3, our local IHOP hosted National Pancake Day and offered free short stacks to raise donations for the Children’s Miracle Network hospitals. 

I sat across from a table of teens who ate their short stacks, then left, never touching the guest check holder and walking right past the donation box. When the waiter grabbed the holder, I asked if they’d tipped. He sighed and said that it had been like that all day, with a constant stream of high schoolers who ordered only the pancakes and left neither donation nor tip. 

To be clear, the servers kindly thanked each table for donations when leaving the holders. If you are a parent of a local teen, ask him/her about an IHOP visit that day. If he or she did visit, ask about the donation. If you don’t care to ask, you are the reason for this problem. —Jennifer Bessette, Somers