‘Avengers’ Star Mark Ruffalo Starts #PayItForwardChallenge With Starbucks Gift Card

Mark Ruffalo is getting in the holiday spirit by showing it’s better to give than to receive.

The Avengers: Infinity War star took to Twitter ahead of the Christmas holiday to share a screencap of a Starbucks gift card that he had loaded with $100, encouraging fans to have a drink on him as a thank you while also encouraging them to add onto the card themselves as part of a “pay it forward” challenge for the holidays.

“Good morning,” Ruffalo wrote. “Just wanted to thank you all for being the best people you can be each and everyday. Please enjoy a drink on me. I encourage you to add on to this gift card. Happy Holidays everyone!”

A few days later, Ruffalo tweeted the card again, noting that he had added more money to the card and challenged others to keep the holiday spirit going, wondering if they could make the cheer last until the new year.

The gesture was picked up by fans and followers and soon, people were not only reloading Ruffalo’s original card, but starting their own versions of the challenge as well. Some fans replied to Ruffalo’s tweet that they were doing other things instead of Starbucks as part of the challenge, including buying other people’s meals at restaurants, buying books for people in bookstores, and even one Canadian follower who started a Tim Horton’s “pay it forward” challenge card as inspired by Ruffalo.

And it isn’t just the gift of caffeine that Ruffalo included in his challenge. The Marvel Cinematic Universe star also shared a Barnes and Noble gift card for people to use as well as encouraged followers and other celebrities to purchase and share cards so that others could buy books, writing that “I know books cost more than coffee.”

And it appears that Ruffalo’s challenge, at least the Starbucks version, is still going strong. People are still posting that they’ve used or reloaded the card on Twitter.