Coronavirus Community: Folsom Woman Working To Return Sweaters & Lunchboxes Left Behind At Elementary School
FOLSOM (CBS13) — Kim Gouveia isn't in the clothing or merchandising business, but she does want to get rid of her inventory of jackets, sweaters, and lunchboxes.
These aren't donated goods. They were left behind by school kids who had no idea when the bell rang one day last month they wouldn't be returning anytime soon.
"[Because] you know when the kids left, it was a Friday and they thought they'd be coming back on Monday," Kim said.
Kim said couldn't take it when she saw the discarded items during her daily strolls near Sprenz Elementary School in Folsom.
"Seeing that day after day was starting to make me sad," she said.
She thought about how much the kids were missing out on seeing their friends, playing, and just being kids.
"So one day I decided 'okay I'm gonna go and look and take an inventory," Kim said. "I recruited my husband and my son and we took the wagon to the park and we decided to gather it all up."
Kim wore gloves and gave her son a specific job: "My mom got to pick everything up — I just holded the bag open," he said.
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In total, they collected 45 sweatshirts and jackets, four lunch boxes, a water bottle, a frisbee, a couple of hats. They even found their son's lost sweater!
Now the Gouveia family is working to find their rightful owners. Kim's Facebook page helped make some connections.
"A lot of people have reached out to me, so quite a few things are gonna go back to their homes, " she said.
Helping to weave back together the fabric of a life interrupted, that just might give a young person what they need right now — a sense of familiarity and comfort.
