To the Editor:
I am writing to praise one (actually two) of our local merchants. My letter is long overdue, but that does not make it any less sincere.
I am a teacher at Lincoln Academy and it is my privilege to serve as faculty advisor for our male service fraternity, Alpha Sigma Gamma. Our fraternity exists to serve individuals and groups in the Lincoln County community which may from time to time need some help with a particular project or problem. The brothers are among the finest young men who attend our school, excelling sometimes in academics, sometimes in athletics, but always in previous character traits that everyone desires in their own children.
Several months ago, I consulted John and Ellie Day, owners of Day’s Emporium & Engraving at the foot of Academy Hill in Newcastle, because I needed to order some new membership lapel pins for our annual induction ceremony. Our little fraternity has a very small budget and I worried that it might be too expensive for us to continue to give our new initiates both a pin and a t-shirt when they are inducted.
Mr. Day was initially puzzled about what supplier he would need to consult to obtain additional pins but Mrs. Day has a very sharp eye and noticed a tiny phone number of the manufacturer on the back face of the sample pin I provided her.
She could easily have ignored that number and made a hefty profit from our club’s necessity, but she chose not to and instead made it possible for us to obtain the pins we needed at a reasonable price from a competing producer who deals in greater volume than the Days do at their store.
She relinquished our sample pin and recommended I give the other company a call.
I was very touched by their kindness and their support for our boys and our school. I know that many local merchants and businesses support our athletic teams, our performing arts department, and any number of other Lincoln Academy programs, but our little service fraternity is largely unheralded and I think it was very gracious of the Days to help us out with their kind recommendation which enabled us to stretch our little budget quite a bit father.
Perhaps the general public already knows what generous people the Days are, but I wanted to bring to light this particular kindness and let them know Alpha Sigma Gamma is deeply appreciative of them.
