On July 7th, 17-year-old Emily Dickerson and her school choir of 200 from Council Bluffs, Iowa, were just nearing the end of a week-long tour of San Antonio, Texas.
They had just finished performing at Texas Six Flags, and were going to finish the day at McGee Beach in nearby Corpus Christi.
They were advised to leave their belongings behind at the hotel or on the charter bus, which Emily did.
But she realized too late that she was wearing her most treasured possessions.
She forgot to remove her four rings, which included a birthstone ring from her late grandmother, a sweet 16 ring, and a promise ring from her boyfriend.
But the fourth ring was truly irreplaceable.
It contained her fathers ashes, who had passed when Emily was eight.
Said Emily, “This is what I have so my Dad is with me all the time, no matter what.
I was definitely a Daddy's girl. I was his princess."
It was too late to put them back on the bus, as it left to park elsewhere.
“I was afraid they were going to fall off in the ocean.”
So, after each student was given a boxed lunch from Subway, she took off her rings and put them in the box whilst she swam.
During the rush to load all the students back onto the bus, Emily forgot about her rings .
Which, ended up in the trash, at the bottom of a 4 ton receptacle.
Two hours later, back in San Antonio, when the group stopped at a restaurant for dinner, she looked down at her bare fingers and froze with a sick feeling of realization.
Said Emily, "The charter bus wasn't able to drive all the way back to Corpus Christi to look through some trash. Those were his ashes. You can't replace those."
She called her mom, Tina, who was back in Iowa, in a panic.
This was a Friday, on a busy Father’s Day weekend.
She left a desperate message on the machine at the Parks and Recreation Department, explaining everything.
Said Tina, “I had no anticipation of anyone calling me back.
It was truly just hope.”
On Monday morning, the P & R’s operation supervisor, Laura Perez, heard the frantic message.
“You could hear the heartache about what had just happened to her daughter,” said Laura. “It was just a mom doing what moms do.”
Laura’s grandma had recently passed, and she imagined herself in this spot, and how devastated she would be.
“I’m going to do my best to see if we can find this ring for this little girl.”
She was on it, and pronto.
She traced the outing location, and to the now full to overflowing 4- ton dumpster.
It was 8:30am when she heard Tina’s message, and that dumpster is usually picked up by 8a.m.
But there it was, still full.
And in the sweltering 115 degree Texas heat, she and with her team, Jesse Martinez and Robert Trevino, they dug through every single bag of trash.
For four hours.
It wasn’t pleasant, but they were undeterred.
Said Laura, "Nothing in one. So, we went to another bag and we did the same thing over and over."
Three hours into the search, they spotted a single Subway box, then hundreds of them.
They were close.
And so it goes, it was literally in the last bag at the very bottom.
She called Tina with the news.
But that wasn’t the end.
Perez called Koch to deliver the good news, saying: “You won’t believe it.”
Koch was in tears.
“Honestly, I had no words,” Koch said.
As the two chatted on the phone, Koch told Perez she was so happy she was able to find “the most important one.” Perez was puzzled, as she didn’t realize there was more than one missing ring.
Although Koch reassured Perez that the other rings were replaceable, she insisted on going back to find all of them.
“I won’t promise you anything, but I’m going to give it a whirl,” she said.
Said Laura, "'Did you find the other rings?' And I'm like, 'What are you talking about?' I said, 'There's more?' She said, 'yes!'"
And they were at it again, this time ‘only’ taking a half hour to find them.
Said P & R Director Robert Dodd, “We all have those mementos or things that mean a lot to us. I lost my dad four years ago, and I have some of his jewelry. I know how much that means to me, and I know how much it means to this young lady.”
Said Tina, “We’re talking about four rings in a hot, nasty dumpster. I’m blown away. I don’t have enough praise for these people.
Emily definitely had a guardian angel that day."
Said Emily, "I’m so ecstatic, honestly. To find out they found them. I was in disbelief. I was so shocked that they were so capable.
They went above and beyond to do that. What could I possibly say… but thank you.
It was astonishing. I’m very grateful.
There is good out there.
I’m going to remember this forever.”