When Robert Parker lost his wallet at his daughter’s basketball game at Brantford Collegiate Institute, he didn’t think he would see it again. When he got a call that a tenth grader named Alex turned it in, he wanted to pay back the good deed.
“I had just leased a new car and as part of the deal was given around $500 in gas cards, which were in the wallet,” Parker said “ I had moved from trying to find the wallet, to replacing everything when my wife received a call from my daughters coach, that the wallet had been found.”
After getting the message, the partner at Millards Accountants in Brantford contacted the school to pick it up.
“On my walk over, I started wondering who turned it in and decided to ask,” he said. “When I learned it was a student, and saw that everything was still in my wallet (gas cards included), I thought it would be a nice gesture to reward that student with a set of Leafs tickets. I knew there would be privacy issues involved regarding the student so I worked with the secretary at BCI as well as the girls basketball coach whom the wallet was turned in to, to extend the offer to the student, who I was happy to learn was a hockey fan.”
Parker sent Alex to Toronto on his birthday to see the Maple Leafs face off against the Nashville Predators, who happen to be his second favourite team. Following the game, the teen got to meet Maple Leaf alumnus Curtis Joseph and received a signed stick from Roman Josi, captain of the Predators.
When Parker found out that both the secretary at BCI and the basketball coach, Ms. Hamilton and Ms. Rombough, had young sons who were huge hockey fans, he decided to give them tickets as well.
Parker said that the tickets have special meaning to him, and represent giving back to the community. After the sudden passing of Millards partner, Mike Terdik, he was given an opportunity to share season tickets with a client he took on.
“I was extended the offer to continue the arrangement and as a hockey fan, I was of course excited to,” he said. “During the time I spent getting to know the clients Mike worked with, it struck me what a tremendous impact he had on people, how well thought of he was and the common statement was, he was just a good person. What I had decided to do after taking over the tickets was to use the majority of them, to do good things. I started with giving them away to young hockey players so they could see their first NHL hockey game, or donating them to help raise money for local causes. I have not been perfect in my life but I hoped that by doing this, it would honour the memory of a person I have only grown to respect more the more I have learned about him.”
Despite his involvement, Parker said that the credit really belongs to the people at BCI.
“Ms. Hamilton and Ms. Rombough at BCI, to me, are the story here,” he said. “They took my small gesture and made it more. I am just so happy to see Mike’s tickets give a little reward to someone that was just a good person. We can always use more good people in the world that I think anyone can agree on.”
To thank him for the experience, the staff at BCI made a donation to a charity in Robert Parker’s name.
