"My Promo-Mentors Writing Challenge": That Time We Found Some Lost Dinos

A couple of summers ago, my then 3-year-old son Ulysse struck toddler gold while playing at the park: he discovered two large, very fierce looking dinosaurs floating forlornly in the shallow pool atop a mini waterfall in one of the water features at our local park. Ulysse sat happily in the water for close to an hour, enjoying his new found Cretaceous companions as if they were the only three "people" in the world. I asked passersby if they had lost their dinosaur toys, but with no luck. When we were ready to leave, no one had come to retrieve their prehistoric creatures, so I agreed to let Ulysse take them home, with the understanding that we would do our best to get them back to the child who had lost them. But how? It's not like they had a microchip or could tell us their address. Hundreds of children play at this park everyday. Suddenly, I had a silly, but potentially brilliant idea.

That evening, once Ulysse was in bed, I created the above flyer, complete with a glaring and unfortunate spelling mistake that I somehow neglected to correct even though it is clearly underlined in red. Alas, spelling has never been my forte. Nevertheless, I was quite pleased with my efforts and we returned to the park the next day to post our flyers. I thought, if nothing else, this little adventure has given me a laugh, and maybe it will make a few park patrons smile as well. I always appreciate when people do unlikely things like this and now was my chance to do something unique and possibly reunite a heartbroken child with his or her toys in the process.

First step: Photo shoot! I needed some good pictures of these two scaly varmints. Then I realized I needed a way to verify the identity of their true master. The flyer would have to feature only one of the dinosaurs and ask for a description of the other as a test. We can't have just any old kid calling to say they want their dinos back. I am nothing if not rigorous!

Finally, we posted the flyers in key spots around the park and hoped for the best. I only got one or two prank phone calls over the next week or so and then finally, one day, a woman's voice tentatively asked if I had posted the flyer about the lost dino pals. Yes! Success! Her son had forgotten them at the park about a week earlier and had been despondent - the parents out there will know these hunks of molded plastic are surprisingly expensive! He was understandably thrilled to see his long lost toothy friend featured on a lost and found poster at the park the next time they visited. The boy's mother correctly described the green T-Rex not shown in the flyer and a felicitous match was made.

We arranged for a pick up and I sealed the two beasts in a bag with a little message: Dear *****, We are so happy you found us! Please never leave us alone like that again. We were well taken care of, but we missed you so much!

The boy's mother later found me on FaceBook and shared the post she made about the whole incident. I was so glad to have brought a little spark of joy and wonder to her and her son. No, I didn't change the world, but in reaching out to try to help others, I made a human connection I would not otherwise have made - and I got a happy memory and a great story out of it!

Have you ever gone out of your way to help a stranger? What was your experience? Were you successful? How did it make you feel?

Photos by me: @orangina