Jeff Edelstein: As it turns out, $15 goes a long way
Vedat Saygili was outside the TD Bank on Rt. 33 in Hamilton, waiting his turn for the ATM machine. The person in front of him was clearly having trouble. In and out went the card, buttons were pressed, nothing was happening. So Saygili offered to help out, see what he could do.
“My card kept getting declined,” said 15-year-old Noah Young, a Robbinsville High School sophomore. “He helped me try to get it to work, and then we realized I didn’t have enough money in my account for the withdrawal.”
Young was planning on meeting friends for dinner at Friendly’s in the Foxmoor strip mall.
So Saygili did what … well, what not many people would do, honestly.
“I kind of recognized him, he’d been to the store before,” Saygili, the manager of Bagels n’ Cream, told me. “So I told him if he needed the money, I could give it to him, and whenever he came into the bagel shop again, he could pay me back.”
Young graciously accepted $15, and asked for Saygili’s name and number so he could pay him back ASAP.
“I told him not to worry about it, whenever he dropped in,” Saygili said.
“I was very shocked,” Young said. “He just trusted me to pay him back next time I see him. I’m surprised someone would do that. I’m definitely not going to forget this, especially with all the stuff going on in the country, it feels good to see some good deeds.”
Young is correct: It does feel good to see some good deeds. And he’s not alone, as after his father, Rich, posted this story on Facebook, the likes, shares, and comments poured in from Robbinsville. And the county. And the state. And everywhere.
“All we read about is doom and gloom, and here you have a small gesture of kindness and caring and I thought it was worth sharing on Facebook,” Rich Young said. “He doesn’t know my son, maybe he’s seen him from time to time, but in this era, with COVID and rioting and protesting and the election, all of a sudden a guy gives out a lending hand, and … and the reaction was overwhelming. People were so moved by it. Clearly, we’re all hungry for a little bit of humanity. And Vedat delivered.”
As for Vedat? Well, he gets social media and how things spread, but to him, if everyone acted like he did, there would be no need for Facebook.
“Sometimes words cannot explain,” Saygili said. “It’s just to be a little conscious and awake to our surroundings to see what’s going on. I never thought anything would happen after I lent him the money, but seeing it on Facebook woke me up to the community’s hunger for good deeds and awareness. I got calls from New York, Philadelphia, Newark. It’s remarkable. This really isn’t about the $15. We should all not just look down, but also look around to see if everything is OK and normal. And if it’s not, everyone should intervene and do something about it. For me it all comes down to pay it forward. What comes around goes around. I was happy to help, and I didn’t think anything of it. I never thought it would go anywhere else.”
Well, it did. The whole community knows about it. Some good news for a change.
Oh, and by the way, Noah made it in time for dinner. Some kind of Buffalo chicken with cheese and bacon on toast. Sounds delightful.
Jeff Edelstein is a columnist for The Trentonian. He can be reached at jedelstein@ trentonian.com, facebook. com/jeffreyedelstein and @ jeffedelstein on Twitter.