She’s gone to the same Wawa every day for 30 years. On Wawa Day, she was honored by the store’s staff.

Cherylann Siple was there the day Wawa opened its first store in Boothwyn in 1969. When that store closed and relocated just up Chichester Avenue in 2021, Siple was there for the closing of the old store and the opening of the new one, too.

Between her old Wawa and the new one, Siple, 70, of Wilmington, said she’s hopped the border to go to the Boothwyn Wawa between 10 and 10:30 a.m. every day — without fail — for 30 years.

“I’m as regular as the sun rising,” she said. “I’m an extreme Wawa fan.”

There’s a Wawa down the road from Siple’s house in Wilmington, but that’s not her Wawa. This one is. A retired medical technician, Siple started coming to the Boothwyn Wawa when she was taking care of elderly friends in the area. She knows every staffer at the store by name and has most of their cell numbers saved in her contacts.

“I like to experience the good morning with the good people here,” she said. “There’s not a more giving, caring group of people, and I don’t mean just to me. I see it every day how they are.”

On Thursday, Wally Goose and the staff at the Boothwyn store who call Siple “Ms. Cheryl” (except for assistant general manager Jacob Blue, who calls her “Mom”), surprised Siple on her daily Wawa run by crowning her their branch’s “Day Brightener” and presenting her with a shiny sash, flowers, a Wawa coffee mug, and free coffee for a week.

“Cheryl is like the best person ever. She’s my go-to lady every morning,” Blue said. “I have her in my contacts as ‘Mom.’ We have grown this relationship and she checks up on me on a daily basis.”

The presentation was part of the chain’s annual Wawa Day celebrations, marking 59 years since its first retail store opened in Folsom in 1964. Staffers at each of Wawa’s more than 990 stores were asked to pick one customer to be honored as their store’s “Day Brightener,” someone who makes their day better just by walking through the doors.

“It’s very humbling to know that people feel about you like you feel about them,” Siple said.

Sarah Yoo, general manager of the store, said Siple comes in every day, knows the entire staff, and notices when associates are out on leave.

“She knows about our personal lives and she loves everyone,” Yoo said. “She’s just super friendly, super nice, and she brightens our day.”

Siple and her daughter, Heather (who calls her mom a “Wawa connoisseur”) have a lunch date once a week at Wawa. Heather Siple said her mom gets shout outs from every corner of the store when she walks in.

“It’s comforting as her child. I can’t be with her all the time, but I know that if she makes it to this point in her day, to get here, she’s OK,” Heather Siple said. “Because they make sure that she’s OK.”

Cherylann Siple’s go-to Wawa order is a 24-ounce Colombian coffee, cheddar potato soup, and a custom turkey bagel melt on an everything bagel. Siple doesn’t need to use the touch screen to order, the associates know what she wants when she walks in.

And Siple has a strict rule about Wawa coffee — it’s the only kind she’ll drink.

“I don’t have it anyone’s home. I don’t have it at any restaurant,” she said. “You can take me to the finest meal and on my way home I’d like to stop at Wawa.”

When Siple was in an accident a few years ago, the staff droped off meals on their way home from work. And when staffers at the store have babies or lose loved ones, Siple sends them gifts.

“I like them to know that I’m thinking of them and feeling whatever they’re feeling at the same time,” she said.

Recently, when associate Charles Alexander was out on leave, Siple sent him a care package of meats, cheeses, and jams. The two go way back, to Alexander’s first day 20 years ago.

“Charles’ first day at work, he was having trouble with the register. I’ll never forget it because I said to him ‘If you don’t mind, I can show what you’re doing wrong,’” Siple recalled. “There was nobody else in line, so I leaned around so I could reach the register so I could show him what to do.”

And when a new staffer came on board recently and Siple saw she was nervous trying to keep up with the coffee pots while customers were barking at her, Siple introduced herself.

“I said to her, ‘You’ll be fine. Don’t let anyone take your confidence away from you. Just do the best you can do.’ She said ‘But I need this job so bad’ and I told her ‘You’ll be here, you’ll make it. You’ll be fine,’” Siple recalled.

That staffer came up to Siple as she was honored Thursday.

“When she hugged me, she said ‘You knew something I didn’t know,’” Siple said. “Whatever you do makes a difference to somebody. You can make your own day better by starting with making somebody else’s day better.”