Olathe ? A waitress who received national attention for returning $3,300 to a customer last year said she still was sometimes astonished by the aftermath of her honest deed.

Last December, Heidi Tomassi found an envelope packed with 33 $100 bills while working at Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill and Bar in Olathe. She gave the envelope to her manager, although she and her husband, Joe, were about $15,000 in debt from bills for treating her 4 1/2-month-old son’s heart defect.

The owner of the money — a man from Sedalia, Mo. — said he had sold a car to get money for his family’s Christmas presents.

After the story broke, Tomassi, now 23, was overwhelmed with interview requests, appeared on national television and was the buzz on talk radio shows. More than 650 people — from California to New York — contacted her, and many sent money or gifts for the family.

“It just kind of takes our breath away sometimes,” Tomassi said. “We have some memorabilia up on the wall as a constant reminder that this is what can happen when you do the right thing.”

She said she has two special memories from that time. One is the effort of a boy with cerebral palsy as he brought her a $20 bill. “It was kind of a struggle for him to come up,” she said. “Looking back and seeing that image in my mind, it just really tugs at my heartstrings.”

The other indelible memory occurred 10 days after her good deed, at Applebee’s corporate headquarters in Overland Park. CEO Lloyd Hill presented the Tomassi family with a $4,260 check representing donations from vendors and employees, and promised to make good on a stranger’s offer of $25,000 that never came through.

“The world was so right during that time, I don’t think we would change anything about it,” Tomassi said. “Even some of the little negative things that happened, the positive outweighs them so much.”

Life has been mostly good for the Tomassis in the last year. They have learned that 16-month-old Griffin was fully recovered from the surgery to correct his heart defect. The couple also has a new baby, 3-month-old R.J., who joined Griffin and 3-year-old Laney.

Joe Tomassi has joined the Air Force, with plans to leave for basic training in January. And Heidi left her job while she was pregnant and now stays home with the three children.

Heidi Tomassi’s honesty prompted Applebee’s to start a fund, called the Heidi Fund, to help other company employees facing financial hardship because of illness or other disasters. Sixty-three employees have received grants from the fund, ranging from one in Minnesota who was seriously injured in a mugging to a server in the Kansas City area who needed help buying plane tickets to visit her dying mother.