While some of us have fond memories of the non-teaching staff in our schools, such as kitchen workers and custodians, much of the time they are invisible to students. But the truth is, schools can’t run without them.
The staff and students at Anderson County High School in Lexington, Kentucky made sure their custodian, Ricky Spaulding, knew just how much they appreciated him.
Their plan to bestow a big surprise on Spaulding began months earlier when staff found out he had yet to meet his newborn granddaughter who was born in Italy.
Spaulding’s son Jacob is in the U.S. Navy and was stationed in Italy, but the new grandparents weren’t able to make the expensive trip overseas yet.
In fact, not only had they not met his grandbaby, the couple hadn’t seen their son in over a year!
That’s when his colleagues concocted a plan to get Ricky Spaulding and his wife Lisa – the school’s secretary – over to Italy.
“Ricky is such a great guy,” school Principal Chris Glass told NBC affiliate LEX 18 according to HuffPost. “It’s hard not to give to his cause.”
On the final day of the school year, the annual pep rally took place as usual. But there was a special moment when everyone got to unveil the surprise.
Spaulding was apparently called to “clean up a spill at the gym,” but when he got there he realized something else was going on. Nevertheless, he got out his mop and bucket before he was directed to a small can.
Inside was a bag of cash!
Glass and his students presented Spaulding with $1,900 to fly him (and Lisa) to Italy.
He was shocked, but partly because he couldn’t believe they had managed to keep it a secret from him for so many months. Even his wife knew about it and had managed to keep it on the down-low!
At the time of the event, the couple’s granddaughter, Harper Elaine, was two months old.
“I was just absolutely speechless,” Spaulding recalled. “When I think of the generosity of the students and the staff here, just for me, just overflowing with emotion.”
The Spaulding’s son Jacob was equally shocked. His mom hadn’t let him in on the secret either and it wasn’t until he saw a Facebook post about the pep rally present that he knew he could be expecting company over the summer.
“I Skyped with him that afternoon and he said, ‘Dad, I heard you had a pretty good day today.’ I said, ‘Yeah, it was a pretty good day!'” Spaulding told Yahoo News.
It’s not everyday someone gives you nearly $2k to pay for a trip to Italy, so the Spauldings consider this a “once-in-a-lifetime” vacation and plan to do some sightseeing as well as partaking in their reunion and meeting little Harper.
“We are very blessed,” he said. “I just can’t say any more than that.”
Words could not describe how the couple felt after the pep rally that day but they were doubly impressed that the students had played such a large role in coming through for them as well.
And the couple did, indeed, take their trip.
Be sure to scroll down below to see the special moment and hear Ricky and Lisa talk about the generous gesture.
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