Fiance Donates $6,000 Ring to Goodwill, Sort of…
There are only a handful of people in this world who are truly good. You know, the kind of person that donates to charity on a regular basis. Instead of selling his or her stuff on eBay to make a couple bucks they figure someone less fortunate deserves it more. But how about donating your $6,000 engagement ring? Seems too good to be true right? Well, as it turns out, it is. Jacelyn Penton accidentally donated her engagement ring (that she didn’t even know about yet) to Goodwill. Her fiance, Corey Todd, was hiding it in a pair of jeans until he finished school. Penton decided to donate a few things to Goodwill and just so happens the jeans were on the list. Can you imagine that?!? What would you do? Now the ring is gone forever.
When it was time for Todd to propose, he went to get the ring from his jeans, but they were nowhere to be found! He asked his soon-to-be fiance where they went and she dropped the bomb. She told him she donated them to Goodwill. When he realized the ring was gone forever he decided to tell her his plan to propose.
“The sparkle was gone, and (Penton) didn’t get the surprise moment she should have gotten,” says Pamela Kidwell, director of marketing at Panama City-based jewelry store Maharaja’s. “So we decided to try to put the magic back in the moment.” “It was one of those things where you think, ‘Hmmm, this seems like an opportunity for a nice thing we could do,’” Kidwell says. “We do community service events all the time, and this seemed like it was right up our alley. (Store owner) Manu Samtani is like a big teddy bear, and likes to help when we can. He’s gone through a robbery and knows the importance of giving back.”
Kidwell went to visit Todd at his workplace to get the story first hand. She listened and knew something had to be done. She told him that they didn’t have a specific plan yet but they will try and fix the situation. After Kidwell spoke to Todd she invited Todd and Penton back to the jewelry store. It turns out the ring he got her wasn’t the one she wanted anyway! So when Penton left, the jeweler gave Todd a brand new ring for free! Now all he needed was a proposal idea.
Well, Kidwell helped with that as well.
The idea was to stage a fake commercial at the hospital that Penton works at and that she would be part of it. But when she came in ready to film, Todd was there, got down on one knee, and proposed. “We invited her parents, his parents, their friends and family, and we had a camera crew from a local television and cable station,” Kidwell said of the surprise engagement. “Few people at the hospital were told, so the secret was kept. We snuck everyone in and let it play out.”
Penton said yes and a big snafu was diverted. Now the happy couple has a great story to tell their kids one day and the jewelry store has national attention. It was a win win for both parties involved.
