City Workers to the Rescue

Those of you who have read this column know that I love stories about people helping others and expecting nothing in return. This story is even more special because it happened right here in Prince Albert.

A bridal shower was held recently at the Art Hauser Centre for Shannon Hryhor. As part of the decorations, a beautiful cake was decorated with two broaches which had belonged to Shannon’s two grandmothers. Her mother, Lois Hryhor, took charge of the broaches after they were removed from the cake and later accidently threw them away in the garbage. When she realized what she had done, she was sick with worry that she had lost these precious mementos, but there was nothing she could do until Monday morning when staff returned to the Art Hauser Center.

After what I am sure was a sleepless night, Lois went to the Art Hauser Centre on Monday morning where she relayed to a city employee what had happened. The employee immediately took Lois to the dumpsters and was under the assumption that it had not yet been emptied. However, upon opening the doors to the dumpsters, they discovered they had indeed been emptied. Lois felt all was lost and that she would never find the broaches.

The city employee, however, was not ready to give up quite yet. She contacted the Public Works Department and was able to track down the collector who had picked up the garbage at the Art Hauser Centre. He met Lois at the landfill and informed her that he knew which bags he had picked up from the Centre. He located the bags and even held them for Lois while she searched through them for the missing heirlooms. It didn’t take very long for Lois to find the broaches. Needless to say, Lois and Shannon are very grateful to the City of Prince Albert employees who went out of their way to help them find their precious items.

This is an amazing story of people going above and beyond the call of duty. It seems that so often people complain about city workers and rarely give them credit for a job well done. They do a lot of good work for which they do not get credit for, so I am very pleased that this story has received a fair amount of publicity.  Because of the kindness and dedication of our city employees, the Hryhor family have the special souvenirs of their grandmothers back in their hands. Perhaps someday Shannon’s daughter will use her great-grandmothers’ broaches on her own shower cake. I am sure that Lois and Shannon will pass on to her the story of that day when City of Prince Albert employees help rescue the jewellery from the landfill.

People going above and beyond the call of duty to make other people happy . . .  it’s a good thing!