A random act of kindness
turns into circle of opportunity
Bruce Crofts is a nice person.
He sees the best in people and refuses to be defeated by the worst in
people. He operates on the sunny side of life.
With this attitude, he's ideally suited to be starting a business devoted
to preventing slips and falls ... in entryways, bathtubs, bathrooms,
restaurants, hospitals, even. And with a plucky approach, he's been
advertising, talking, promoting his service that takes ordinary flooring,
usually covered with rubber mats and "red cone warning signs"
all winter, and hoping people will consider his alternative, Advanced
Safety Solutions.
He's been buying advertisements, speaking to groups and doing all the
'right' things when starting a business. He's been meeting with insurance
companies and adjusters about his product to suggest rate incentives
to companies who take action to prevent slips and falls.
He faithfully attends Small Business Networking Association every Thursday
morning at Barrie Public Library ... it's this weekly meeting that gives
him encouragement that he's doing the right thing.
That's one side of Bruce.
As he left his meeting last week, he drove along Collier Street on the
way to his own bank.
Just across from the new parking terminal, he saw a young woman run
across the road, and something dropped from her pocket as she ran. He
rolled down his window and shouted, but she was quick, and she was gone.
He circled back and picked up the fallen item in the middle of Collier
Street.
It was a bus pass, a Barrie transit ticket for the month of May. It
had a name on it ... let's say J.W. It had a price on it, too ... $70.
"If you don't have a car and you're taking public transit, $70
is a lot of money. I remembered she had a green sweater on and I drove
down Dunlop Street but she was not to be found," he says.
Well, Bruce is a nice person, as I've said. He went to his computer,
looked up Canada 411 and typed in the last name on the card, first initial
J. Up came 12 of them, in Barrie. One by one, he called each number,
leaving messages and asking for the first name on the card when someone
did answer.
Later that night, he got a call. J. had just arrived home, panicked
because she'd lost her pass. She wasn't sure how she'd get through the
month without it. She was thrilled. Could they meet to pick it up?
No, they couldn't. Bruce was going off to a meeting and it would be
no trouble to drop it off at her apartment. Which he did.
"She was at the side door of her apartment and I gave her the bus
pass. We got talking. Turns out she works with people who are mobility
challenged. She does physical therapy with them. She was eager to take
my brochures for her customers."
Funny how that works. Bruce tosses it off. "I would hope that if
it ever happened in reverse, someone would take 10 minutes and try to
find me," he says.
A nice person would!
Thanks, Bruce.
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