A heartwarming story of kindness

This is the kind of thing I love to write about, because we don’t hear stories like these often enough.

It comes to me from one of my most faithful readers, Linda Meyers. She and her daughter Julia had gone over to her sister’s house on one of those very windy days a few weeks ago, so that Julia could present her Girl Scout Cookie sales pitch to her aunt in person. When they arrived home, however, they noticed that Julia’s cookie money envelope was gone. Sometime during the visit, perhaps when they were walking back to the car, the wind must have stripped the envelope from the clipboard they were carrying.

Linda returned to her sister’s house and scoured the yard. She was able to find $4 caught in a tree in the backyard, but no more. And no envelope at all. She knew she needed some help. She wrote,

Since I didn’t find the envelope or the rest of the money, I posted about the missing envelope on Facebook … and texted a few friends who live close to see if they could look in their yards, which they very kindly did! A few of my sister’s neighbors also went out to look even though it was dark, cold, and windy! One friend/neighbor even said her neighbor and his grandson turned it into an (unsuccessful) scavenger hunt.

Unfortunately, these valiant efforts turned up nothing and it looked like the money was gone forever.

But then, just a few days later, Lena Budd, an official from the Girl Scouts of Western NY, called to report that a Webster man had found Julia’s envelope, complete with Julia’s name and troop number. Lena had gotten a call from Karla Nichols, a Girl Scout Leader in Hilton who works at Mayer’s Lake Ontario Winery. SHE had been contacted by Fran and Rich Grizzanto, who found the envelope, thinking that Julia Meyers might be related.

Linda got Fran’s phone number and called her right away. “We had a lovely chat,” she wrote. “Turns out (Fran) lives diagonally behind my sister. She said they had found $21 floating around their yard and in their bushes. The envelope itself had gotten stuck in a prickly bush along their front walk.”

Later that evening, Linda and Julia stopped by the Grizzantos’ home to pick up the envelope. They were “lovely,” she said, adding that “Rich said he wished he’d gotten a video of his wife scrambling to grab money in the backyard! Fran gave us a jar of her homemade grape jelly, which is delicious, and noted that it is her 21st batch of jam. Coincidence that she recovered $21?”

In the end, Julia was only able to recover $25 of the $50 she had in the envelope, but since no one was really expecting to get any of it back, that was a big relief. Linda says that they’ll be returning to Fran and Rich’s house in March with some free cookies to thank them for their efforts.

So that’s the story of the missing cookie money envelope. A lot of people had to show a lot of kindness to get that envelope and the money back to a hard-working Girl Scout. Many thanks to all who helped make it a happy ending.

If you like this story and perhaps want to meet little Julia for yourself, she and her Troop 60344 will be selling cookies on:

• Saturday March 4, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Hegedorns
• Sunday March 12, 1 to 4 p.m. at Lowe’s
• Saturday March 25, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Walmart’s Home entrance
• Saturday April 1, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Walmart’s Home entrance

(Julia herself may not be at all of these dates, but will definitely be at Lowe’s on the 12th!)

* * *

email me  at missyblog@gmail.com. “Like” this blog on Facebook and follow me on Instagram.

You can also get email notifications every time I post a new blog by using the “Follow Me” link on the right side of this page.

(posted 2/13/2023)

Tags: Missy Rosenberry, Webster NY