An 11-year-old from Green Bay, Wisconsin, is reminding everyone of one powerful truth: “Doing the right thing is good.”
Vince Hietpas and his dad Lorenzo were taking a walk at Voyageur Park on Memorial Day when the child spotted a wallet lying on the ground. Vince scooped it up and quickly located the driver’s license inside. Without hesitation, he and his dad headed to the address listed to return the wallet to its rightful owner.
Facebook
The wallet belonged to a 17-year-old high school student named Chase Dahlke. He’d misplaced it while he was fishing and had resigned himself to never seeing it again. But Vince had other ideas!
He showed up at the Dahlke’s home while they were visiting a neighbor and explained what he found through their Ring doorbell camera. Chase’s dad Jason was “kind of in shock that somebody could do a nice gesture like this” and hurried over to retrieve the lost item. Jason wanted to reward the little hero, but all he had to offer was $2 from inside the wallet.
Of course, Vince didn’t mind! “We got $2 and I was happy,”he said, assuming that was the end of it. But Chase’s stepmom Michelle wanted to do more!
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“Who knows this kid?” she wrote on Facebook. “We want to reward him! So thankful for him and his dad. There is so much hate in this world and so much negativity. It’s time to focus on the positive.”
It didn’t take long for the community to help them reconnect with Vince and Lorenzo! That’s when they found out Vince’s good deed was even more impressive than they realized.
Lorenzo had been working at a meat packing plant – until he contracted COVID-19. While he’s mostly recovered, he still can’t breathe well enough to use the PPE he needs at work. He’s been doing odd jobs trying to make ends meet for months, but his family has been struggling.
GoFundMe
Michelle updated her original post with the news and asked their neighbors to consider donating to a GoFundMe.
“This family still gave the wallet back even though they have nothing!” she wrote. “This family could use some love and support from us.”
That’s exactly what their community offered! People are steadily donating to the campaign and have raised over $7,500!
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We’re so glad the Dahlke family went out of their way to reward these strangers in their time of need. Way to do the right thing, Vince!
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