On Jan. 1, theBlue Bloodsstar and wife Jenny McCarthystopped in for breakfast at an IHOP locationnear their St. Charles, Ill. home—and left their server a $2,020 tip on a $78.45 bill.

“@donniewahlberg starting 2020 off like the amazing man he is,” McCarthy wrote on Twitter, along with a photo of their credit card receipt—which included Wahlberg’s handwritten “Thanks Bethany,” “2020 Tip Challenge” and “Happy new year” notes. (The “2020 Tip Challenge” appears to be a reference to a generous tipping trend thatstarted in Michigan, when a server at Thunder Bay River Restaurant received a $2,020 tip on a $23 bill.)

“I’ve loved Donnie my whole life—I was a very bigNew Kids on the Blockfan when I was a kid,” Bethany Provencher, the IHOP server who received the tip, tells PEOPLE. “I didn’t want to freak out at the table, so I went into the bathroom and freaked out a little. I was like, ‘oh my god!'”

“I served them the best I could do,” she says of the party, which included McCarthy’s son, Evan, 17, and a few of his friends. “He folded up the receipt and he gave it to me, and told me not to open it until he left. I said ‘okay, thank you, guys, come again. I’ll take care of you again.’ Then I open it, and I almost fell to the floor.”

The surprises didn’t end there for Provencher, who has been a server for 25 years and worked at this IHOP location for two months. Shortly after the couple’s visit, she received a special phone call from Wahlberg. “Donnie called me at the restaurant and I spoke to him. I really wanted to thank him and Jenny because they don’t even understand what they did for me,” she says.

“God put him there for a reason for me, and I know that,” she says. “It’s the greatest thing to ever happen in my life.”

This isn’t the first time Wahlberg has left hefty tips for his restaurant servers. In 2017, the New Kids on the Block singerleft $500 for Waffle House employees working the night shift in Maryland, and alsogifted a $2,000 tip (and front row concert tickets and backstage passes) for Waffle House servers in Charlotte, N.C.

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For the first time in a decade, Wahlberg and McCarthyspent the new year at homewith their family in St. Charlesinstead of in New York City’s Times Square—where McCarthy has appeared as a co-host of ABC’sDick Clark’sNew Year’s Rockin’ Evesince 2010.

source: people.com