Acts of kindness shine at Bonners Ferry Christmas bazaar

I'd like to report two incidents I witnessed Friday during the Christmas bazaar at the Bonners Ferry Fairgrounds. A third happened while I was typing this letter. 

My bride and I were attempting to sell our game, “Raising Boys to Become Men” when a young man handed us a $100 bill. He said he had just found it on the floor in front of our booth. My bride quickly figured out who could have possibly dropped it. Using her sleuthing skills, she found the rightful owner and was able to return it.

I witnessed the second incident where a young girl had dropped a $5 bill and was frantically looking for it. A vender three booths away gave her the $5 that she dropped, explaining that someone had found it on the floor and turned it in. That little girl's smile brightened anyone's day.

On this cold, dark, rainy night I decided to curl up by the fire and write this letter to the editor explaining my experience at the Christmas bazaar, when my phone rang. It was my bride frantically trying to explain that she had lost all of our money for the entire month! It was difficult to decipher because she was in panic mode. What I was able to figure out is that she had gone to the bank and withdrawn all the money we needed to make it through this month. She then picked up two of our young grandchildren and went to Super 1 Foods to purchase our week’s worth of groceries. It was dark as she buckled the grandchildren into their seats. Evidently, she didn't see her large gray purse that was still in the cart as she rolled it back to the cart return.

We prayed.

My bride drove back to Super 1, praying all the way. She went to the customer service desk and frantically asked if they had seen it. After she identified it, the gal said, "Someone found your purse in a grocery cart and brought it into us; here you go." My bride quickly checked to see if her cash was still there, forgetting that we live in Bonners Ferry. Of course, the cash was still tucked away; after all we do live in Bonners Ferry.

We love living here! We will also carry on this tradition of treating others as we'd like to be treated. If you get a chance to talk with folks who are refugees from other states, ask them. I can assure you that the person who lost the $100 or that little girl who lost her $5 would never see their property returned! And my bride's purse? We'd find it in a ditch, empty. 

This story will resonate with almost every person who has moved here in the past four years. And for those who lived here all their lives, well, they may just say, "OK, so what's new?" God, family, faith and guns. 

DANIEL W. BUSHNELL 

Bonners Ferry