Fairfield Kroger bagger’s kindness rewarded with key to the city

On his day off from work at the Fairfield Kroger, Shawn Webb came to the store to pass out Mother’s Day cards.

That’s not unexpected of the 38-year-old’s kindness, said his boss and Fairfield Kroger store director Ed Begley.

“He’s the most kind, sweetest young man you’d ever meet,” he said.

Webb, who is developmentally disabled, received a key to the city Monday evening at Fairfield City Council because he’s “just such a great person, and just such a great ambassador, not just to Kroger but for this community,” said Mayor Steve Miller.

“ I think this whole community knows you and loves you,” he said. “You are so good to people. When they leave (Kroger), I think they feel better about themselves and they’re better to other people. And it’s because of you. I don’t know if you realize that or know the impact that you have, or the ripple effect that you can have for this whole community. It’s amazing.”

The key to the city was in large part because of the reaction to Webb passing out Mother’s Day cards on his day off.

Angie Kenworthy, a Kroger regular and a founder of Fairfield LoveWorks, asked Webb why he was passing out Mother’s Day cards. She recorded his response — “Happy Mother’s Day. It pays to be kind to people, and that makes me happy.” — and posted it on Facebook.

The 8-second video has been viewed more than 26,000 times since it was posted on May 13 and shared nearly 500 times.

“LoveWorks is about paying kindness forward, whether it’s holding a door open for someone, whether it’s letting someone merge in front of traffic or doing what Shawn does every day at Kroger and that’s just being kind to people,” said Kenworthy. “I’ve known Shawn for years at Kroger, and just like everybody else, I go through the line that he’s working in, and he just brightens your day when you go in there.”

Webb has worked for Kroger for 15 years, the first 11 in Oxford and the last four in Fairfield.

He passed out 70 Mother’s Day cards — inspired, he said, because just 12 days earlier, on his birthday, he received 36 cards.

He just enjoys paying the kindness forward, he said.

“It’s special to me because I love everybody,” Webb said. “I love my job and I love to make people happy every day. I meet nice people. I love the people.”

Dozens of Kroger customers came to see Webb receive the key to the city of Fairfield on Monday evening.

After receiving the honor, an emotional Webb said, “Every time you guys come to Kroger, you guys make my day. Thank you from my heart. I love you guys.”

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