FOLLOWUP: Surprise gifts for West Seattle girl who lost cherished keepsake to car prowler

The photo above is from an unexpected followup to a recent West Seattle Crime Watch reader report. At right is Yzzy, whose mom Alex reported a smash-and-grab during their regular Saturday morning Morgan Junction coffee run – taken from the wheel well was a special World War II aviation-themed bag that Yzzy cherished. At left in the photo is Deb, who had read the report and subsequently e-mailed to say:

I work at Vulcan (Paul Allen’s company) and we have a WWII museum, Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum in Everett. I reached out to our team there and they have come through with a gift bag for Alex’s daughter (see photo). We hope this gift bag, including 4 passes to the museum, will brighten her day and reaffirm there are good folks out here in the world!

So we connected them, and requested a followup report, which Alex sent after their Saturday morning meetup. If you recognize Yzzy, her mom explains why:

Yzzy was so happy with all the gifts from the Vulcan folks. Deb was wonderful – one of those people that really listen & talk with & connect with younger folks. It just filled my heart up to watch them chat. I made a connection with a West Side neighbor as well – something that is hard for me, as I’m not much of a people person.

Deb even recognized Yz from the Blog posts of bake sales for disaster relief over the years – and offered to help bake for the next fundraiser.

We talked about Yzzy’s love of WWII planes, her great-grandfather being part of the 82nd airborne & the Market Garden operation. (Ever see “A Bridge Too Far”?)

Deb told us about all the things Vulcan does and the WWII ship recently discovered by their endeavors (of course – Yzzy knew the name & that it had been part of the Midway operation).

We’re planning a family trip up to the Everett Flying Heritage Museum in a month or two & promised to take pics & let Deb know about that adventure.

The negative of the smash & grab turned around into such a positive! An affirmation of our wonderful West Seattle community. Thank you Deb. Thank you Vulcan. Thank you West Seattle Blog.

And a few words from Yzzy herself:

When I got my bag stolen, I was kind of in shock. Since I had never had that sort of thing happen to me before, I didn’t know how to react. When my mom told me about Deb & Vulcan, I couldn’t be happier!

Knowing that someone, and their co-workers, went out of their way to do this for me, makes me want to do this sort of thing when I grow up.

(As her mom mentioned – and as we have covered over the years – Yzzy’s giving nature already is in evidence.)

15 Replies to "FOLLOWUP: Surprise gifts for West Seattle girl who lost cherished keepsake to car prowler"

  • Meredith Bricken Mills March 26, 2018 (12:18 pm)

    Warms my heart!

  • Starsky March 26, 2018 (12:23 pm)

    Awsome! 

  • JanS March 26, 2018 (12:32 pm)

    I have lived in West Seattle for 43 years, an east coast transplant. I love West Seattle. We have great people in the ‘hood, don’t we? :)

  • Nice March 26, 2018 (1:18 pm)

    This girl Yzzy is absolutely adorable. What a sweetheart! I hope she knows about the “connections” program at the flight museum in Seattle, which gives free access to all kinds of cool workshops, and unlimited free admissions to the museum for 1kid+1adult. My 9 yr old daughter is a connections member. 

    • Yma March 26, 2018 (2:47 pm)

      Hi Nice –

      yes,Yzzy is part of Connections – it’s  one of the reasons we can visit the Museum of Flight so much.

      We’re super excited to head up north to the Flying Heritage Museum

  • sc March 26, 2018 (1:18 pm)

    “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” 

    – Anne Frank

  • Lisa March 26, 2018 (1:43 pm)

    Deb is a wonderful person! 

  • Yma March 26, 2018 (2:02 pm)

    Meeting Deb was pretty darn keen! We do hope to stay in touch.

    Yz & her Da & I – yes – we do talk about & try to do good things.  I don’t know if we can improve the world, but we do try to help folks, at least be cognizant and talk about our what’s going on in our city, out country, the world.

    West Seattle – completely fantastic! Let’s keep this rolling! (says she who doesn’t like to talk to people – heh)

  • anonymous March 26, 2018 (2:41 pm)

    My heart is exploding! <3

  • Astro March 26, 2018 (2:58 pm)

    Love this!  Thank you Deb for making Yzzy’s day. 

  • Plf March 26, 2018 (4:09 pm)

    Good people indeed!!

  • Jonathan March 26, 2018 (6:22 pm)

    I’ve known Deb for 15 years and this does not come as a surprise.  She is one of the most thoughtful and generous people I’ve ever met, not to mention an amazing baker too!

  • Dot March 26, 2018 (6:39 pm)

    I can relate. We visited that town in Holland and bridge that was the one in A Bridge Too Far movie, just last Spring. If I knew how, I would look up the picture I took of it and post it on the WS Blog. Such a lovely thing for Vulcan people to do. And WS is awesome. I’ve lived here for 78 years and it’s the best with the best people. So glad Yzzy had a good experience after that horrible robbery.

  • West Coast Nomad March 26, 2018 (8:15 pm)

    Really cool!

  • Lindsey March 28, 2018 (8:22 am)

    Aww that’s awesome! I’m so impressed with her history knowledge! This kid’s got a bright future.

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