A Christmas Tale

December 23rd, 2011 by James L. Sweaney, CGA, FGA. GG

Our new Raincross piece for this year is the beautiful Heritage Raincross pendant, a brilliantly enameled version of the well-loved Raincross brand orange crate label. We were a little late in getting it into production, but fortunately, the new piece was an immediate hit—we pre-sold all of our opening order with orders for more to be delivered after the holidays. And then, as luck would have it, because of technical difficulties, our enamelists were only able to complete about 2/3 of the initial order.

Today, we had the very last one on display, but it was already spoken for, when a gentleman walked in, immediately zeroed in on our display piece and asked to buy one. We explained that we were sold out.

His face fell. He offered to buy the display piece, we told him the piece was already sold. He told us his wife had her heart set on having one for Christmas, that was all she wanted, and she had even clipped our ad out and given it to him. He said he had to have it, even offering to pay double or more for the one we had on display. We didn’t feel it was ethical to sell the piece under the circumstances and told him we just couldn’t sell it at any price.

Then he told us the rest of the story—he is a Marine captain, home on short leave from Afghanistan to escort one of his men home from the hospital. The soldier, a Riverside native who was wounded a couple of months ago while spotting targets for a bombing raid, goes home tomorrow. Then, it’s back to Afghanistan for the captain, his fourth tour of duty.

I called and  explained the situation to Amy, who had purchased the pendant. She didn’t hesitate—she was glad to let him take her pendant, saying she was thankful for his service and for the opportunity to help him out.

Just goes to show the Christmas spirit is alive and well in Riverside. We all appreciate the dedicated service of the folks who defend our community, our country, and our way of life.

Merry Christmas!

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