Class ring lost during Florida beach trip makes its way back to Collins Hill High School grad

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    Gwinnett County, GA (Gwinnett Daily Post) — John Porcella said he’s used his metal detector in the area around the pier at Jacksonville Beach, Fla. many times before.

But it wasn’t until after many storms and hurricanes hit the beach over the past 18 years that he came across a class ring belonging to a Collins Hill High School graduate.

Amy Goetz, a 2001 graduate of Collins Hill, was reunited with the ring on June 22. She said it still fits and is in the same condition as she remembers seeing it 18 years ago.

“I’m just so incredibly and utterly thankful that people like John still exist and that they will go the extra mile to reunite somebody with something that they don’t even know if it’s meaningful or not,” Goetz said. “He doesn’t know how much this made me smile.”

Goetz doesn’t quite remember losing the ring. Over the years, she thought she lost it in Atlanta in late 2001. But as it turns out, she lost it during a beach trip to Jacksonville in early 2002.

“I’ve thought about it through the years,” she said. “Every time I would watch a class graduate, it was kind of a reminder of that. I had toyed with the idea of getting it remade throughout the years because I missed it. I kind of realized I was never going to get it back and then all of a sudden I get this call from the Gwinnett County PD.”

After Porcella found the ring, he tried to go through Collins Hill High to locate Goetz. However, when the school tried the phone number on file, itwas disconnected and Goetz’ email address came back as undeliverable.

Porcella continued his search for Goetz, however. Porcella said he tried looking for her on Facebook and other social media sites, but there were so many people under the same name that he didn’t have any luck finding the correct person.

Then he tried the Gwinnett County Police Department, which was able to verify Goetz’s information. A police officer told her the story of how Porcella had found her ring and wanted to return it to her.

“I think it’s amazing,” Porcella said. “It got washed out into the ocean and then the ocean kicked it back up on the beach. I just happened to be right there at the right moment at the right time. I worked that area of the beach many, many times and never found it, and then all of a sudden I did. It’s interesting.”

Goetz said she doesn’t see herself taking the ring off any time soon.

“I just hope that I can make somebody’s day like that because of the impact this had for me,” Goetz said. “t may be simple to him, but it made my whole life for me right now. I’m going through a lot and for me this was a sign that those good people are still out there and there are people whose hearts are still in the right place.”

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