Acts of Kindness
Autistic man that works McDonald’s drive thru attracts owners attention for way he greets customers
When you pull up to order at this McDonald’s you can’t help but notice Daniel’s greeting and when word got out to the owner of the McDonald’s about his employee he was compelled to take action.
Colby Maxwell
08.03.21

For many people, going to a fast-food restaurant isn’t the most pleasant experience. The lines can be long, the food may not be hot, but hey, it’s cheap, right? Well, for one McDonalds in Arden Hills, Minnesota, the reason so many people frequent their establishment isn’t just the food, it’s the service!

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When you pull up to the Arden Hills McDonalds for lunch, you truly never know what you are going to get!

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The best part? We aren’t even talking about the food! Lunchtime here means singing and a show that is unmatched in most food services establishments and it’s what makes this location so special. The driving force behind the lunchtime show is a man named Daniel.

Daniel loves to sing and talk while he works at his Mcdonald’s!

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Whether it’s singing the famous “ba, da, ba, ba, ba” as loud as he can or making a joke, Daniel is pretty much guaranteed to make you laugh. People heading through the line who don’t know what to expect always come away with a surprised, but amused, look on their faces.

“This guy is great,”

22-year-old Daniel has autism, but he doesn’t let that stop him from doing what he loves.

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If you pull up to the window and Daniel doesn’t know your name, you can be sure he will give you a temporary one.

“What’s up Superstar?” he asks a customer. “Boss” “Captain” “Rockstar”

Daniel clearly makes friends faster than he makes fries, but it wasn’t always that easy for him. In fact, in school, things were really hard for him.

“I was different from a lot of people,” Daniel says.

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During his school years, lots of people made fun of him.

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“I was called names, like, I was dumb, I was stupid, I was retarded,” he says.

He was even made fun of at a different burger place he tried to work at in the same area. The beaming positivity that Daniel brought to his work was viewed as an annoyance instead of something wonderful. It got to the point that they even tried to get him to quit and would tell him other places would like him more.

When he met Ashley at the current McDonalds he works at, it thankfully clicked.

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Ashley has an autistic son and saw her son in Daniel. She knew that he would give his all into whatever he loved – in this case, it was great customer service! It has made a huge difference, too. Since he came on team, they have received hundreds of letters and notes from customers who wanted to tell them just how wonderful their experience was because of the young man who helped them take their order.

The community has rallied around Daniel and even put his name on the McDonalds sign!

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It was an incredible gesture of kindness and one that Daniel could barely handle (he fell over backward on the sidewall and started laughing).

“It’s home,” he says. “It’s a brand-new opportunity for me to be somebody in the world.

Check out the video below!

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