Struggling mom touched by Perry police officers' random act of kindness

PERRY -- Two umbrellas and rain ponchos may not seem like much. But for a Perry mother struggling to make ends meet and raise an 11-year-old boy, they were priceless.

The gifts were from two Perry police officers who saw a need and stepped into action.

"It means a lot," said 39-year-old Gwen Dunn, wiping away tears. "It's something small. ... It's something that people do take for granted, and it does make a big difference."

That "something" was shelter from the pouring rain one cold January morning.

On Jan. 15, Perry police Officer Allen Gylfe and his field training officer, Sgt. Jimmy Jones, were dispatched to Dunn's home, a small, borrowed recreational vehicle parked at the Fair Harbor RV Park off Marshallville Road.

Dunn requested that officers step in after her son, Nathan, refused to go to school. He'd already missed too many days.

When Gylfe and Jones arrived, Nathan, a fifth-grader at Tucker Elementary School, had missed the bus. So they drove him to school in their patrol vehicle and talked with him on the way.

They learned that the reason Nathan didn't want to go to school that day was because it was raining and he didn't have a raincoat or an umbrella.

He would have gotten soaked walking to the bus stop.

The officers also talked with his mother and learned she didn't have any rain gear either.

They also found out that Dunn supports herself and her son by making sandwiches at a Perry restaurant within a mile of Fair Harbor.

She walks to work, which usually takes her 20 to 30 minutes. She rents the lot for the recreational vehicle that's loaned to her by a friend. The rent includes electricity, water and free cable and WiFi.

Gylfe and Jones decided to drive to Wal-Mart in Perry and buy the two ponchos and umbrellas with their own money.

"Everyone should have something to, you know, to kind of help them to make their lives a little better, just to keep them out of the rain," Gylfe said. "Maybe it's something that some of us might take for granted ... but I wanted to do something for them to make their lives a little bit easier."

Overwhelmed by the unexpected act of kindness, Dunn said she couldn't help but cry.

"Those little things help, they really do," she said.

For Nathan, the experience has been a good one.

"He was excited about the umbrella," Dunn said. He's now going to school as he should.

The encounter with Nathan and his mother also benefited the officers.

"Sometimes we feel like all we can do is, you know, enforce the law and we don't maybe have time to do other things to help, the smaller things," Gylfe said.

Jones added, "I wish I could help everybody I come across. That's the very reason why I got into this job, as did officer Gylfe. It just makes me feel good. They're struggling, and if that helps them that little bit, I mean, then it's a good thing."

To contact writer Becky Purser, call 256-9559, or find her on Twitter @becpurser.

This story was originally published January 31, 2016 at 8:41 PM with the headline "Struggling mom touched by Perry police officers' random act of kindness ."