A Norwalk dump truck driver’s kind gesture is making positive waves throughout the community and standing out enough to be noticed after the act was caught on video and posted online on social media.
Carlos Gonzales and Dave Kuban, owners of Dave and Charlie’s Hometown Deli in Norwalk, were preparing for the morning Thursday when they glanced through a window and noticed the trash collector had stopped his route and was walking towards a young lady on the side of the road.
Gonzales said it was easy to tell that she was down on her luck and wasn’t having such a good day. “We just saw him hugging her for, I don’t know, I want to say five minutes if that. But it was a real hug.”
Additionally, he said that the driver gave the lady some cash. Kuban snapped a few photos and posted them to a Norwalk group on Facebook about the act of kindness he’d recently witnessed. “That’s just Dave being Dave. He sees something nice, and he just wants to show appreciation,” Gonzales said.
As you can probably guess, the post didn’t take long before spreading like wildfire. The social media group took to giving shout-outs to the driver and began trying to find a local deli place that would hook him up with a free meal.
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“We wanted to show him we appreciate him doing something like that. We need that in the world today.”
The post continued to be shared on social media, eventually making its way up to a local deli spot and News 12 to Mike Nance, a representative from WIN Waste Innovations.
“Anytime you see somebody walking around with everything that they own, talking to themselves – I don’t know. It just took over me,” Nance said.
As I’ve said before, God works in mysterious ways. This act of kindness could have meant more than we’ll ever know to the woman in the article. When you feel an urge to step out of the ordinary and do something you normally wouldn’t do, try heeding the call. It could be the Holy Spirit talking to you, God trying to use you to help someone, and in turn, help you as well.
Additionally, Nance said in the wake of conversing with the lady and aiding her with the cash, he felt a sense of urgency to do even more than just give money, he felt called to offer more solace.
“So I hugged her. I said a prayer, and that was it,” he said.
There we have it. I’m sure there’s more to this than meets the eye. Yes, on the surface it’s just another act of kindness, but deep down, there’s more and if you’re in the Word, then you’ll be able to recognize when things are from the Lord. People who don’t read the Bible or who are newer to Christianity might think to themselves ‘it’s only an act of kindness, is that even in the Bible?’.
Well, yes, there are numerous verses that come to mind, but if we go with just one we can look at Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” The Bible says we are to walk like God, despite us not being perfect like him, just as this passage describes.
Nance said he doesn’t really know how he feels about the news being shared about his act of kindness, but that he does whatever he can in order to help his community. In light of this, the deli was inspired to include the woman in the giving back as well.
“After we saw him do that, we made her a little breakfast and brought it over to her. It’s a domino effect,” Gonzales said.