Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus...

Ever lose someting knowing you'd never find it again? Happened to me in NYC once - left my cell phone in a cab, knowing it would never come back. But the cabbie found it and turned it in, so when I called the cab company they not only had it, but were more than happy to send it back. Imagine... I even sent kudos to the Commissioner of the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission.

This must be common in New York. I read a blurb tonight called "Miracle Near 42nd Street" in the FastCompany blog; its about a guy who lost his wallet in a cab, it was found by another passenger, and the two meet to get the wallet back to its rightful owner. The rest of the story... the owner was so grateful, he pledged to help the good samaritan's favorite charity, Big Big Sisters of New York City. To the tune of $40,000 over four years! What a great pick-me-up/good-news story at a time of year when not everyone is enjoying the season, including many of the kids BBBS helps, I'll bet.



I dig BBBS... we just did something with their local Martin County Chapter last week for my job, and it was a great experience. Santa was scheduled to visit a Christmas party for the "littles" and "bigs", but his sleigh was in the shop, so we arranged some alternate transportation - color coordinated, even. I'm in a Leadership forum with the local BBBS CEO, Bill Bee. It was a fun and easy thing to set up, and we got an awesome reaction from all involved - kids and adults alike. I love it when a plan comes together... and we made the front page of Sunday's local section of the Palm Beach Post (thank you Jill Taylor); a full color picture, above the fold, generating I'm guessing 150,000 impressions.

You can't buy that kind of coolness. Its brought out by good karma.