RICHLAND-- One person's kindness ballooned into a chain of generosity at Starbucks today. That chain was more than 200 links long, all Starbucks customers who started the day with one random act of kindness.

Groggy Starbucks regulars start their day by getting a little pick-me-up handed through their car windows in the mornings. Today one person decided to treat the car behind him at around 8 AM.

"I think it's a great idea," said Missy Cartmell, the 102nd person to continue the chain. "What a cool thing."

"It's a nice little surprise," said Jason Bailey, a Hanford teamster. "I was most certainly not expecting anything like that to happen, so I'll give someone else a nice little surprise."

The line of generosity caught on like wildfire, giving 209 people a good start to their day. Even when the stream of traffic stopped, the last car left money for the next person who pulled up.

"I'm having a very stressful day right now, and that actually cheered me up," said Connie Forsha, a local business owner. "It feels good when you do something like that and people do it back."

Karen Dix, a Starbucks barista, postponed her lunch break for three hours because she was so excited to see chain continue. Then she drove through on her lunch break, providing the 116th link.

"Somebody just decided to pay for the car behind them and it just kept going for a little while," she said. "And then everybody thought the numbers were getting pretty high, so we started asking if they wanted to keep it going."

This isn't the first time the Richland Starbucks has had a chain like this before, but it's usually during the holidays.

College student Brooke Henderson experienced it the last time she was here for Christmas break, and now again while on spring break. "The last time I was here the car in front of me paid for my drink too, she said. "It was really weird."

"It makes you feel a little bit better, you can help someone behind you," said Carlos Latorre, a pharmaceutical representative and Starbucks regular. "Hopefully they don't have a very big order!"

The chain stopped at around 2 PM, when someone drove through and took the free coffee, but didn't buy any for the next car.