A cycle of good
Danyell Giroux lost her three-wheeler and learned a valuable lesson last week: there are more good people than bad.
Giroux is 12 years old and suffers from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, which makes it difficult to ride a two-wheeler. Instead, she pedals around on an adult-sized trike for transportation and exercise. Until someone stole it from her front lawn Thursday.
Why anyone takes anything that doesn’t belong to them is one of life’s mysteries, and the theft of Danyell’s bike is a reminder to us all that there are bad people out there.
After the Sun Journal reported Danyell’s story on Friday, offers of help poured in to Danyell and her mother, Shelly Bradstreet. Without being asked, people started collecting money and looking around to see if they could find the trike.
It was an instant and generous response to help this young girl by a community eager to right a wrong. And, perhaps even most inspirational was Bradstreet’s position, after learning of the collections, that she absolutely did not want to profit from her daughter’s misfortune and wasn’t looking for a handout. She had already arranged to borrow another bike from a friend and was looking only for the return of the bike. Plain and simple. And noble.
We get so used to hearing stories about people doing the wrong thing that it’s an inspiration to see so many people do the right thing to help one young girl. We hope Danyell holds tight to that latter lesson, and not the lousy one that thievery is OK.
It isn’t.
editorialboard@sunjournal.com


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