Featured Image Credit: Instagram/Alamy
Topics: Celebrity
Isobel Pankhurst
Former basketball player Shaquille O'Neal has set himself a challenge. Every single time he leaves his house, he makes sure to do at least one good deed - and this newest one might just be the most generous one yet.
He started off by taking a family with nine kids out for a meal. But what started out as a free dinner turned into a trip to a local Mercedes dealership.
The Collins family, who have gained quite the social media following, were in need a need vehicle that could fit their growing family. So the generous O'Neal decided to buy them a brand new 15-passenger van.
In an Instagram post the family said that they 'have no words right now!!!'.
The family continued that: "Last night we had a surprise visit from Shaq. He took us to dinner as a family at babes chicken. It was so much fun to just hang out and eat dinner with him.
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"And then today!! He started the day off by taking us to the Mercedes dealership to get us a new family 15 passenger van."
But this wasn't all Shaq blessed this family with. That evening he also took the family for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.
Here, he even paid for another family's meal AND tipped the waitress $1000.
Shaq's generosity then went even further when he discovered the Collins's father's truck hadn't been able to provide air conditioning or heat for a while, he took them to a Ford dealership to get him a brand new one.
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One their Instagram the family wrote that Shaq 'also spent time encouraging us and loving on our children and speaking life into our family'.
Shaq's generosity has previously made headlines when he became a real-life Santa Claus at Christmas and gave away thousands of free presents. Included in these gifts were 1,000 PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch consoles.
Speaking on Gary Vaynerchuk's The Gary Vee Audio Experience podcast he said that he has felt compelled to give back the community in part because of his parents:
"You know for me, coming from where I come from, my father was a drill sergeant, my mother just was a hard-working woman,"
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"Didn't have a lot. But they taught me the value of giving back. They taught me the value of helping those in need."