If you’re a fan of the hit Broadway show Come From Away (or even if you’re not), the following story about kindness will warm your heart.
Come From Away tells how 38 planes were diverted to Gander, Newfoundland on 9/11 and how the people of Gander and nearby towns opened their hearts and their homes for five days to house and feed the almost 7,000 stranded passengers and crew members. My story today is about how two Webster residents, Bob Freese and Peg Schaefer, took it upon themselves to thank the people of Newfoundland for their generosity, and how they’re planning to do it again later this summer. It tells of a month-long trip spanning almost 5,000 miles that would take them to the four corners of the island, and change their lives forever.
In December of 2018, when they were visiting friends near New York City, Bob and Peg saw Come From Away for the first time. It touched them deeply. They realized soon afterwards that they wanted to visit Newfoundland, meet the people, and express their gratitude.
They planned their trip for the following August, and as they were doing so, they wondered how exactly to express their gratitude. Ultimately, they decided on chocolate. More specifically, 1.55-ounce Hershey Bars, which could be easily purchased and wrapped with their message of thanks.
They started spreading the word about their planned adventure, and donations of candy bars and money to purchase candy bars started flowing in. Shortly before their trip, they invited friends and family members to a cabin party to wrap the candy bars and individually sign each thank you message. By the time they were all done, Bob and Peg had 600 Hershey Bars prepped for their trip to Newfoundland.
On August 15, 2019, Bob and Peg packed the candy bars into their RV and set off for Newfoundland. It took almost a week to reach the ferry in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, and another six and a half hours on the ferry to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland. So they had plenty of time to figure out exactly how they’d go about handing out the chocolate. How would they approach people? Would it seem weird just to walk up to someone and give them a candy bar?
Turns out, they needn’t have been concerned; it just came naturally. In no time at all they’d handed out their very first chocolate thank you message, to a waitress in Port aux Basques.
For the next several weeks, Bob and Peg traveled from town to town, up one side of the island and down the other, distributing their candy bars to people they met in shops, stores, visitors’ centers, gas stations, or even people on the street they saw walking by. Each time they’d explain how they were so inspired by the Come From Away story that they wanted to visit Newfoundland and thank the residents. And each time they’d get smiles, hugs, tears, and thanks in return.
“They were blown away,” Bob said, “like we gave them a million dollars.”
Now, that’s a pretty cool story in its own right. Two kind people taking the time and significant effort to return the love shown by the Newfoundlanders during one of the darkest times in our country’s history. But as I listened to Bob and Peg tell their story, I realized that the most amazing part of their adventure is not the kindness they showed, but the kindnesses they received. Everywhere they went, they experienced the kind of generosity and genuine kindness towards strangers that was epitomized in Come From Away.
They actually got a taste of that hospitality well before they embarked on their trip. Several months earlier, they were vacationing in Florida when they met a couple from Newfoundland who happen to live about a half hour north of the ferry (and “there’s only one road”). When they heard about Bob and Peg’s plans, they asked, would they like to park their RV in the driveway when they got to town?
They accepted the offer, of course, but “We didn’t want to impose,” Peg said. “We thought one night in the driveway and then we’d be on our way.” But their new friends had other ideas, showing them around the town, and sharing their meals for two days.
That was their first experience with Newfoundlanders’ hospitality. There would be many others.
Like the day they met Joyce and Mabel, two ladies who were walking by their RV. After Bob and Peg presented them with candy bars, they happened to mention they hoped to see a moose on their trip. Later that evening a man pulled up to the RV and said, “Hi, I’m Pierce, Joyce’s husband. She said you want to go see some moose. Get in, I’ll take you moose lookin’.” And they did.
Or the day they handed out some candy bars to several men gathered at a town’s clean water spring. “Meet us here in the parking lot tomorrow,” they said, “and we’ll take you whale watching.” And they did. Later, they invited Bob and Peg to dinner.
Incidents like those happened pretty much everywhere they went, as people opened their hearts and their homes to the strangers from New York who were traveling around, handing out candy bars.
But then it got even better.
Towards the end of their trip, they were on Fogo Island when they met Diane Davis, a third-grade teacher from Gander Academy, on whom the character of Beulah Davis was partly based.
“All of a sudden she pulled up,” Peg said. “She has a Come From Away jacket, Come From Away shoes. She said, ‘I’ve been following you. I’ve been seeing your candy bar posted on my Facebook page and it was getting closer and closer, and I was hoping you would come here.’ She came into our camper for two hours and told us her story.”
A few days later, they were in Gander and got a note from Diane, saying that a “few of us” were getting together at a local restaurant that evening and would they like to come along?
“When we got there,” Peg said, “we saw 14, 16 people already there. Almost everybody that’s in the play, the people are there. Along with Michael Rubinoff, the creative producer.” The date was Sept. 10, and everyone was in town to attend a remembrance ceremony the next day in Appleton.
After dinner, Rubinoff sat with Bob and Peg for two hours, telling them the entire story of how the production came to be, start to finish.
Of course Bob and Peg were invited to the ceremony the next day in Appleton, where they were special guests with front-row seats, and their story was part of the speakers’ remarks. That afternoon, they attended a second ceremony in Gander, where Peg stood next to the real-life Beulah.
What a perfect way to cap an amazing experience.
Bob and Peg had a hard time putting into words what the trip meant to them. “Our mission was to say thanks, and it changed our lives,” Bob said. “One of the things that we found out is the message from the play is all true,” he added. “They’re unpretentious, fun-loving people who are giving and sharing and helping each other.”
It was such a life-changing experience that they’ll be repeating it later this summer. In late July, Bob and Peg will be returning to Newfoundland to hand out even more candy bars and reconnect with many of the new friends they made there. (“They say that when you meet a Newfoundlander, you’re a friend for life,” Peg said.) They’re calling this trip the “Soul Connection Tour,” and they’ll be traveling with seven other people this time. The candy bars will have a new message. In 2019 the wrappers said thank you from the people of Upstate New York. This time they’re from the people of the United States of America.
By the way, they never saw a moose up close. Perhaps they will this time, especially if the amazing folks of Newfoundland have any say in it.
How you can help
If you’d like to support Bob and Peg on their 2023 Soul Connection Tour this summer, there are a few ways you can help:
- Log onto their GoFundMe page to donate some money to the cause. You can read more about their mission there as well.
- Or better yet, buy a box of candy bars and join Bob and Peg on Thursday July 6 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Webster Chamber of Commerce, 1110 Crosspointe Lane (Suite C) for a candy-bar-wrapping-and-signing party. It’s a chance to add your personal thanks to the good people of Newfoundland. You don’t even need to bring any candy bars. Just come and join the fun. Bring the kids, watch some videos taken during the previous trip, and sign some candy bars.
If you’d like to arrange another time to sign some bars, contact Bob Freese at BobFreese@gmail.com. Click here to see the Soul Connection Tour flyer for more details and a look at the thank-you message.
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(posted 6/5/2023)
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