When I chose to get a job I knew that big changes would be happening for my family, including chores, schedules, childcare, and time management. I also knew that my oldest kiddo was going to middle school this fall and my youngest would be going into kindergarten. With these changes I knew there would be some challenges. But from past experiences I have learned to look for the good people. The people who will help, who will communicate well, who will work as a team with me and will have patience with my kids.

This summer my kids got to experience some full time child care in the way of “summer camp” and I gotta say that some of these camp leaders (mostly teens) have been not only stepping up for my kids, but have been going above and beyond. I see the patient way they encourage Mr. L to join their nature walks, how they join in the games with Little Miss A, and how they keep track of Mr. C and his age group of wild kids.

But today I wanted to share when a couple of teen camp leaders went out of their way to help Mr. L when it was time for me to pick him up from camp.

My oldest son was gathering up his backpack, lunchbox and doodle board when he realized that he didn’t have his unfinished art project. He started looking around the pavilion, under picnic tables, and around other people’s bags when a camp leader came over and asked what he was looking for. Another camp teen joined in and started searching as well. While the 2nd teen was asking where it might have last been seen, the first teen casually sneaked over to the big, outdoor trash can and started sifting through the rubbish.

This teen committed to the cause and pulled handfuls and handfuls of trash out until she found his now dirty, brown paper, bag. By this point Mr. L was standing by and stressfully pacing back and forth in hopes that his unfinished project would be recovered. This sweet teen had pulled out his bag, handed it to me, and while I ripped open the nasty paper, the other teen handed me another paper bag to put my kid’s treasure in.

This was gross. This was above what could have been reasonably asked for. This act of kindness was beyond what the average kid could hope for. But these camp teen leaders recognized that this wasn’t an average search and rescue. They could see that my autistic son was becoming agitated and was on the cusp of a meltdown. They took the time, did some literal dumpster digging and saved the end of my son’s day. They saved the day and I’m grateful. They didn’t have to do any of that, but they chose to, and that was pretty freaking cool of them.

We sanitized in the car. We washed our hands at home. Hopefully they did the same. And yes, I reached out to their boss and shared what an amazing job they did.

Good people are around us. Sometimes we just have to be nice, give them a chance and make sure to say thank you.