Recently people have been reporting random acts of kindness with the pay if forward movement, suggesting that Rogersville might just be the kindest community in Tennessee.
For example, there was a lost wallet returned with all of the money in it.
A local woman who lost two months of work due to cancer treatments learned her electric bill had been paid anonymously.
And for one little girl, the kindness and honesty of a stranger meant the world to her after losing her cell phone at the City Park.
A lost cell phone
Seven-year-old Presliee Carmack was at Rogersville City Park with her mother when she lost her cell phone. Her mother, Aleshia Carmack searched everywhere for the phone but was unable to find it.
“Honestly I was heartbroken because I didn’t think she would get her phone back,” said Aleshia Carmack. “We looked all over the park up until after dark. Then the next morning after I took Presliee to school I went back to the park and looked everywhere for it.”
But the phone was nowhere to be found.
Carmack decided to put a post on a Rogersville social media thread as a long shot asking if anyone might have found it. However, just 30 minutes before her post, Josh Thacker had already posted he found a phone in the park.
Other people recognized the connection between the lost phone and began to message Thacker who found the phone.
‘Let’s go Mom’
Meanwhile Presliee Carmack was devastated about losing her phone.
“I was in the middle of cooking dinner when I saw a bunch of notifications coming through on my phone and I was just hoping and praying it was someone who had found the phone,” Aleshia Carmack said. “And it was. When I told Presliee someone had found her phone she jumped up, put her shoes on and said, ‘Let’s go Mom!’. She plays learning games on her phone and also calls her sister and brother. I’m just thankful that the person who messaged me had it in his heart to return it.”
A lost wallet
Samantha Mayes told the Review about losing her wallet in Rogersville.
She had accidentally left it on the back of her car and it fell off as she traveled through town.
“All of my personal information was in there including my bank cards and some cash,” Mayes said. “Someone found it and the next day brought it to my house. I gave him the cash that was in it and told him to go buy himself lunch for being a good citizen.”
Paid electric bill
Cancer survivor Mary Kinsler also received a big surprise when she opened her electric bill this month.
Instead of a bill she found she had a credit where someone had anonymously made the payment on her behalf.
She posted, “Whoever the kind hearted person was who paid my light bill this month, I just want to say this has never happened to me before and I am so very grateful. Thank you so much”.
Pay it forward with fast food
And then there is the fast food pay it forward drive-thru trend.
Tyler Parkhill told the Review, “I didn’t have a good day at work. Everything that could’ve gone wrong went wrong. I stopped at Pal’s on the way home. I was looking ahead and saw the girl in front of me pointing back at my car and I was so confused.”
Parkhill said he got out his card and started to hand it to the cahier at the window.
She stopped him and said, “The person in front of you paid for your food”.
“Absolutely blew my mind,” Parkhill said. “It’s like she knew. The next time I was at Pal’s, the guy behind me was yelling because in the .05 seconds that the car in front of me had pulled forward, I hadn’t. I thought maybe he was just having a bad day himself. I paid it forward.”
Parkhill added, “I don’t say that because I want to brag about paying for someone else’s food. I just think if we as people would recognize that others are human as well and show a little. Empathy, maybe those that are a little more hot headed would get to know what kindness can really do.”
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