Member makes the news:
"Class Rings Returned after 38 Years November 23rd, 2013
CHICOPEE, Mass. (WGGB) – It’s a story 38 years in the making. Two class rings — lost nearly 4 decades ago — were returned to their owners in Chicopee Saturday afternoon.
They were found off the coast of Cape Cod, by a stranger just enjoying his hobby.
Gail St. George was swimming at Sea Street beach in Dennis in the Summer of 1975, wearing her class ring and her boyfriend’s. But both were swept away by a wave.
“I mean, I never, in a million years, would have imagine they would have been found, and together, 38 years later,” said St. George.
Rick Browne is the man responsible for finding those rings. He’s a metal detector hobbyist living on Cape Cod, who puts in about 500 hours searching the ocean floor a year.
“These two rings evidently stayed together, and they moved out away from the shore, probably 50 to 75 feet.,” said Browne of the two rings.
Browne was able to track St. George down, using the initials inscribed on the inside of the ring. He Gail’s high school, and matched her initials and graduation year to her name. When Browne reached out to her, St. George mentioned she had also lost her boyfriend’s ring. After answering a few questions, the two determined Browne had also found the second ring.
St. George’s brother was still in touch with her one-time sweetheart, Martin Costello, and let him know the ring had been found.
“I was still kind of ‘Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but as soon as I saw the damages that were on there. It wasn’t from the ocean. It was something I’d done. That’s why I stopped wearing it. And here is it. It’s the ring,” Martin Costello said.
Browne uses a wide variety of equipment to search the waters, and will wade into water as high as five feet deep in the hopes of coming across a special find.
“The rings mean so much more to the people than they do to me. The instant that I find them, it’s the greatest thing in the world, but you know, getting them back, it’s seeing the faces and bring people together,” notes Browne.
“The ring, the story, that part’s not that important. It was nice to see Gail again, to see that she has Mark, a great guy, and the kids,” Costello said.
Browne says all he asks for after returning found items are thank you notes, so that he can reflect on them when he’s no longer able to search the sea.
And if you want to learn more about what Rick Browne does, or think you could use some help finding a lost item, you can check out The Ring Finders’ website:
There, you will find a directory of metal detector hobbyists in places all over the world."
click here to see the news website and access the video.
http://www.wggb.com/2013/11/23/class-rings-returned-after-38-years/?app=1&cat=276
