spontaneous group emergence pay-forward

Here's a mind-blowingly good holiday story. Starbucks detractors are always down on them for trying to become community mini-hubs, and I have mixed thoughts about the coffee giant, but you have to admit, if something like this happened, there's something good going on.

1,000+ Starbucks Patrons Treat Next In Line

MARYSVILLE, Wash. (AP) - One woman's kindness to a fellow Starbucks customer has resulted in more than a thousand others spreading holiday generosity in Marysville, Washington.

The regular customer paid for the person in line behind her a few times before, according to The Everett Herald. When she did the same thing Wednesday, though, that good deed set off a chain of 1,013 customers who each paid for the next person's drink.

Many even tacked on an extra ten or twenty dollars, and shift manager Sarah Nix says Starbucks Corporation will donate to that money to the company's holiday toy drive.

A store employee says the seemingly spontaneous pay-it-forward run ended at 6:20 a.m. today.

The name of the iced-tea drinker who started it remains unknown.