Quiet act of kindness
P.E.I. businesses grateful for mysterious wooden signs that have arrived at their doors
When Cameron Beach arrived early for work at Charlottetown's Canadian Tire store on April 12, he noticed something unusual: a small wooden sign with the store's name carved into it, resting against the door.
He thought it was beautiful and took it inside to his office. That’s when he decided to find out who was behind this anonymous gift, said Beach, who is the store’s owneroperator.
“I'd love to find out who did it and thank them personally,” he told Saltwire in an interview April 15, the day he did discover who was behind it.
He even made a $5,000 donation on behalf of the person as a gesture of gratitude and a way to pay forward the act of kindness.
‘A LITTLE SECRET SURPRISE’
It turns out Canadian Tire wasn't the only recipient of these gifts. Other businesses and organizations in Charlottetown and the surrounding areas also received similar wooden signs with their names carved into them, including The Guardian.
Nicole Balderston, a staff member at Charlottetown's Owl's Hollow, said the store received a wooden sign last year.
“One morning, one of our staff came to the front door, and it was leaning against the front door. And we've had it in our window ever since. And we don't know who made it for us,” Balderston said.
“It was just so nice that someone obviously made it by hand and went to all the work and dropped it off as a little secret surprise.”
SOCIAL MEDIA SEARCH
The morning he found the sign, Beach spoke with his staff, but no one knew who had left it. So, hoping to find the generous individual behind it, he posted a photo of
the sign in a Facebook group, asking if anyone else had received a similar wooden sign.
When he returned to check his post later in the day, he saw that it had “exploded” with numerous comments all sharing stories of receiving similar wooden signs over the past year, along with lots
of photos of the signs in the comments.
Eventually, the person behind the signs reached out to Beach, though she told him she would like to remain anonymous.
“She’s a very humble young
lady. And I said, ‘Well, I’d like to continue this story, so tell me what your passion is like? What tugs at your heartstrings, you know, a charity for instance?’” he recalled the conversation.
She mentioned cancer care, so he reached out to the QEH Foundation to make the $5,000 donation to the Provincial Cancer Treatment Centre.
“One good turn deserves another. So you know, a good, anonymous random act of kindness turned into a nice donation.”
Saltwire reached out to the sign maker, but she declined an interview, saying she prefers to keep her identity undisclosed as she doesn’t want to draw attention to herself. She said she’s happy that the wooden signs are being appreciated.
WARM SPIRIT
For Beach, the wooden sign is a reminder of the warmth and community spirit that had drawn him and his family to move to Prince Edward Island from Ontario about a decade ago.
“It’s funny. When I saw the sign sitting there at seven o'clock on the Friday morning … if I was in Toronto, I would have said, ‘has someone got an explosive device behind this or something like that?’” he said.
“This is our youth that's doing this and honestly, out of the goodness of her heart, she decided to do a good thing and she was very humble about it. … This is what the Island’s all about, right? That's why we moved here 10 years ago, and this is why we're going to stay here.
"With everything that's going on in the world today, like, all the wars that are happening and if you have a story like this, it's nice to hear.”