Store comes through for local soldier’s family

WASILLA — When Sally Summers strode into the Radio Shack store here, all she had in mind was finding a Christmas present for her son Forrest, a soldier deployed in Afghanistan. What Summers found was an example of human generosity seldom noticed these days.

Arriving at Radio Shack, Summers and some family members cruised the shelves for a present to send to the other side of the world.

Forrest, a helicopter mechanic, has been deployed for eight months and will miss his Christmas with his family for the first time this year and the first for his 6-month-old daughter.

Eyeing a remote-controlled car, Summers decided it would be the perfect gift for her son and took it to the counter and began to pay.

One of the people with Summers that day mentioned to the cashier, Radio Shack co-owner Jim White, that the car was going to Afghanistan. With that, White turned over the cash register to another store employee and walked away.

“We thought he had just pawned us off on another young man,” Summers said.

But White had another motive. Soon, he was pilling more electronic toys on the counter. He looked at Summers and said “all these are free.”

Taken aback, Summers said she offered to pay for them, but White would have none of it.

“He said, ‘All service men deserve this,’” Summers said. “I’ll never forget that.”

All in all, White gave enough remote-controlled toys for all five soldiers in Forrest’s group. He even made sure each was on a different frequency so the men in Afghanistan could play with them at the same time.

Thinking ahead, White also sent along plenty of batteries to power the toys.

Summer said upon receiving the gifts in Afghanistan Forrest called to say he and his fellow servicemen were ecstatic. The surprise made their day.

Toys aside, Summers said the generosity and unsolicited kindness of White has stayed with her since that September day.

“It’s so out of the ordinary,” she said. “And I’d hate to say that.”

Summers said she feels bad saying it’s surprising that someone would go out of his way to do something nice, but oftentimes that’s the way the world is now.

White’s kindness struck her so much, she said she “had to call the newspaper” to share the message for the holidays.

For White, giving to the troops was just another day at the office.

At first he didn’t recall the good deed from September, White said.

“I have a horrible memory, but when we know if it’s for the troops, we try to treat them pretty good,” he said.

When he was reminded that Forrest had sent a signed and framed photograph, he quickly recalled.

“That was a really cool picture. They sent a certificate,” he said. “We put together a bunch of toys. Flying things. Some batteries. I wouldn’t call it a donation. It’s for the troops.”

Contact Michael Rovito at michael.rovito@frontiersman.com or 352-2252. T.C. Mitchell contributed to this report.