RING WITH A MEANING GOES ON INCREDIBLE TRIP.Byline: KRISTIN S. AGOSTONI Staff Writer Robin Baker's class ring still looks pretty handsome on his finger, considering its harrowing trip these past few months. The white gold band is roughed up with a few nicks and scratches, but the center ruby still shimmers, and the engraving looks sharp. The ring says Robin on one side and Savanna savanna or savannah (both: səvăn`ə), tropical or subtropical grassland lying on the margin of the trade wind belts. on the other. And beneath his little sister's name is a tiny embossed em·boss tr.v. em·bossed, em·boss·ing, em·boss·es 1. To mold or carve in relief: emboss a design on a coin. 2. angel. Robin was only 4 when Savanna died in 1995. Robin realized his 2008 class ring had gone missing a couple of months ago, but he shrugged it off, figuring he'd eventually find it. Robin never told his 77-year-old grandmother for fear she'd get angry. A mother of six boys who is helping to raise her 16-year-old grandson, Ann Baker would have been sick over the loss of a $425 ring that was a gift from Robin's mother. "I would have spent the rest of my life looking," she said later. So for a couple of months, Robin said he got used to going to school without it. Until earlier this past week that is, when a good Samaritan Good Samaritan man who helped half-dead victim of thieves after a priest and a Levite had “passed by.” [N.T.: Luke 10:33] See : Helpfulness Good Samaritan stepped in. A white FedEx envelope reached the Bakers' Redondo Beach Redondo Beach (rĭdŏn`dō), city (1990 pop. 60,167), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1892. Once a commercial port for Los Angeles, it is a residential and resort city with a protected harbor and an excellent marina. home Monday while Robin was in school, so he missed his chance to intercept it. A few days earlier, a guidance counselor guidance counselor Child psychology A school worker trained to screen, evaluate and advise students on career and academic matters had let him know his ring had surfaced, and that a woman named Jane Clark from Hayward had e-mailed the school looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. his address. So when his grandmother wasn't around, Robin dialed her long-distance number. Unable to reach her last week, he planned to keep trying. Eventually he'd know the story behind the missing ring, he said. But his grandmother beat him to it. When the envelope arrived Monday, Ann and Robin's father, Scott, were immediately curious. "There are no secrets around here," Ann said, so they decided to peel it open. Inside was Robin's 2008 class ring and a handwritten hand·write tr.v. hand·wrote , hand·writ·ten , hand·writ·ing, hand·writes To write by hand. [Back-formation from handwritten.] Adj. 1. letter. The ring, as it turned out, had traveled more than 380 miles from the Bakers' Redondo Beach trash bin to a facility that sorts through rubbish and recyclables in Northern California. Dave Clark, who runs the center in Hayward, south of Oakland, noticed something sparkling on the floor as he sorted through glass piles, said his wife, Jane, who saw the ring when he brought it home that night. She would never have known the significance of the angel and the name Savanna. Twelve years ago, the 2-year-old girl was hit by an ice-cream truck passing through the family's former neighborhood in Apache Junction, Ariz. But Jane Clark, who has a 13-year-old son of her own, said there was something that pushed her to find Robin Leo Leo, in astronomy Leo [Lat.,=the lion], northern constellation lying S of Ursa Major and on the ecliptic (apparent path of the sun through the heavens) between Cancer and Virgo; it is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Baker. She knew his full name because it was engraved en·grave tr.v. en·graved, en·grav·ing, en·graves 1. To carve, cut, or etch into a material: engraved the champion's name on the trophy. 2. on the inside of the band, so she searched local phone listings and posted a message on MySpace. Finally, Jane Clark tracked down an e-mail address for a Redondo Union High School Redondo Union High School is a public high school in Redondo Beach, California. Redondo Union High School is a part of the Redondo Beach Unified School District. All residents of Redondo Beach are zoned to Redondo Union. guidance counselor. "I was determined that this ring was going back to its owner," she said. "It was meant to be." Robin can only figure that he accidentally swept the ring off his desk and into his bedroom trash can. "I thought, what are the odds of anyone finding a ring that small?" Ann said. Or the person who found it having a heart that big. kristin.agostoni(at)dailybreeze.com CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Robin Baker shows the class ring he lost after it was returned in the mail from a recycling center in Hayward, Calif. The Redondo Union High class ring is extra special to the junior because of the inscription of his late sister Savanna's name. Sean Hiller/Staff Photographer |
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