Recently, sophomore student Emily Olienyk lost her bookbag with her school laptop in it while attending an event in Pittsburgh. A few weeks went by, and the family had all but given up hope of the return of the bookbag and possessions. Below is the story related by Emily’s father Mike:
I met with the gentleman named Deshawn who found Emily's backpack and laptop on a Saturday morning at the downtown Pittsburgh Greyhound Bus station. He currently lives in shelters by night in the Pittsburgh area and makes his way around the city by day. Her backpack was where he found it initially and its contents were frozen solid. All of her school books and notebooks were still in the backpack.
This good Samaritan is a recovering addict who spends his evenings in shelters outside of the city and then buses into the city during the day (he shared with me that he had gone to rehab in Altoona at some point in his life). His only concern was to return the laptop and the backpack full of text books and schoolwork to its owner. He never asked me for anything other than a time and place where he could return those items to me. I did give him a token of appreciation for his honesty and efforts and he seemed genuinely surprised and appreciative. We chit-chatted for about 15 minutes that Saturday morning and then both went our separate ways.
I told him to keep my phone number and if he ever makes his way to Cambria Country to give me a call and that I owed him one.
Emily said, “ When my backpack was stolen from me, it felt like my world crumbled. Everything I had was in there. I did not know what my teachers would say when I told them I had nothing. I was worrying the whole night about what I was going to do in the morning. Thankfully, I got word that a man from Pittsburgh had found my backpack on the other side of town. Words could not express how thankful I was. As a result of some random stranger's kindness, I was able to get all of my belongings back in all the same places they were as when I lost it. A strangers kindness can show that there is still many good people in this world today. Everyone has some form of kindness, you just have to find it! “
Never overlook a person! God created good people who do good deeds for others!