The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current, March 17, 2021, Page 14, Image 14

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    A14 THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 2021
RAMP AGENT
TO THE RESCUE
Airline employee reunites a boy and his favorite toy, Buzz Lightyear
BY SYDNEY PAGE
Special to The Washington Post
F
rom the back seat of a
rental car, a concerned
2-year-old boy repeat-
edly asked his parents the same
question: “Where’s Buzz?”
Ashley Davis frantically
sifted through the family’s lug-
gage in search of her son Ha-
gen’s beloved Buzz Lightyear
action figure. It was nowhere
to be found. Hagen was dis-
traught.
“To Hagen, it was the end
of the world,” Davis, 31, said.
“He wanted his Buzz. He is su-
per-attached.”
It was Jan. 30, and the family
of three had just traveled from
Sacramento to Dallas, after
booking a last-minute flight to
attend a funeral.
“My husband’s uncle passed
away very suddenly. It was all
very fast,” said Davis, who was
seven months pregnant at the
time.
She calmly explained to her
son that Buzz was on a “special
mission” and would return to
him shortly. In other words,
she was planning to purchase
a replacement toy at a nearby
Target store.
Little did Davis know,
though, that Buzz was, in
fact, on a special mission, and
would soon be back.
Last flight of the night
Jason William Hamm, a
Southwest Airlines ramp agent
at the Clinton National Air-
port in Little Rock, Arkansas,
spearheaded an elaborate effort
to return Buzz to his rightful
owner.
He commenced the reunion
mission after Beth Buchanan,
an operations agent at South-
west Airlines, discovered the
toy in the aircraft, which had
“Once we realized there was
somebody connected to this
toy, I thought, I got to get it
back to him somehow.”
— Jason William Hamm, 47,
who has worked at Southwest
Airlines for 10 years
landed in Little Rock after de-
parting from Dallas.
“It was the last flight of the
night, and we always have to
go through and make sure
people don’t leave anything,”
Buchanan, 56, said. “They al-
ways do.”
While sweeping through the
cabin, she spotted the action
figure and noticed the name
“Hagen” inscribed on the bot-
tom of Buzz’s boot in perma-
nent marker — a nod to “Toy
Story,” since Andy writes his
own name on the sole of his
toys’ shoes. Rather than tossing
the stranded doll in the airline’s
lost-and-found bin, she de-
cided to look through the pas-
senger list.
“I was thinking about how
this little boy is missing his lit-
tle buddy,” Buchanan said.
Hamm, 47, got involved in
the search when he saw the toy
sitting on his colleague’s desk.
After cross-referencing the
passenger list with the name on
the boot, they confirmed Buzz
belonged to a 2-year-old boy
from Elk Grove, California.
“Once we realized there was
somebody connected to this
toy, I thought, I got to get it
back to him somehow,” said
Hamm.
Once they tracked down
Hagen’s information, Hamm
sent an email to the family to
let them know he located Buzz
and wanted to return him, ask-
ing for the best address to ship
the toy to.
While waiting for a re-
sponse, Hamm, who has
worked at Southwest Airlines
for 10 years, got creative. He
enjoys aviation photography
and decided if he was going
to convince this little boy that
Buzz was truly on a mission, he
would need photo evidence.
He took the action figure to
the tarmac to snap some pic-
tures in various locations. He
positioned Buzz in front of an
airplane, an engine and, obvi-
ously, a cockpit.
And he didn’t stop there.
“I thought it would be kind
of cool to add a little letter to
make it look like Buzz was
on a mission,” Hamm said.
“I thought it would be a cute
keepsake.”
In a space ranger-esque font,
Hamm hand-wrote a letter to
Hagen, complete with a Buzz
Lightyear logo.
“To Commander Hagen,”
the letter reads. “I am very ex-
cited to return to you upon
completing my mission. I was
able to explore the airport and
Photos by Jason William Hammvia The Washington Post
Jason William Hamm, a Southwest Airlines ramp agent, took photos of Buzz Lightyear on the tarmac and
around the plane in an effort to chronicle the action figure’s adventure for Hagen Davis.
spaceport in Little Rock, Ar-
kansas while I was away, and I
have included photos of my ad-
venture. My journey has taught
me a lot but I am so thankful
to return to my buddy.”
He signed the note: “To in-
finity and beyond! Your buddy,
Buzz Lightyear.”
‘I had no idea who he was’
Once Hamm heard back
from the Davis family — who
said they were stunned to re-
ceive the initial email that Buzz
had been located — he put
together a special package for
Hagen.
Hamm printed out the pho-
tos he took, bubble-wrapped
Buzz, and tucked in the hand-
written letter. Then he deco-
rated the exterior of the card-
board box with a drawing
of Buzz Lightyear, stars and
planets, as well as classic “Toy
Story” sayings, like “Not today,
Zurg!” and, of course, “To in-
finity and beyond!”
“I wanted it to be a beautiful
experience when he opened
it up,” Hamm said. “I just
thought he would love it. I had
no idea who he was, but I knew
C LASSIFIEDS
somebody was missing Buzz,
and was probably really sad.”
Plus, “it was such a boring
box. Why not make it cool
looking?” he added. “I was
smiling the whole time I was
drawing. I had a blast.”
For Hamm, his own parent-
ing experiences propelled him
to “go the extra mile,” he said.
“I have an autistic son, and
he gets attached to toys. If he
loses a toy, I know how hard it
is for him,” said Hamm, who
has two children, ages 15 and
12.
“It’s the dad in me, I guess
you could say,” he added.
Hamm sent the package at
his own expense and tracked
the parcel until it finally ar-
rived on Hagen’s doorstep at
the end of February.
Upon opening the package,
Davis was speechless, she said.
While she was relieved that
Buzz was back, she did not an-
ticipate he would return in a
decorated box, complete with a
handwritten note and printed
photos.
“I cried when I opened it,”
she said. “You could see all the
love he put into it.”
Once the tears subsided,
Davis smiled, she said, think-
ing of all the people who got a
kick out of the Buzz-themed
package.
“I wonder how many people
chuckled when they saw the
box with Buzz on it, as it made
its way to infinity and beyond,
from Arkansas all the way to
California,” she said.
Hagen was thrilled, too. His
excitement was caught on cam-
era, and the couple sent a video
of his reaction to Hamm.
“Thank you, Jason,” Hagen
said, clinging eagerly to his
newly returned toy.
Seeing the boy’s smile, Hamm
said, made it all worth it.
“When they sent the video,
that made me tear up. How can
you not love that?” he said.
Davis said she plans to keep
the box, the card and photos
in a special place for Hagen, so
he can always remember the
kindness a stranger showed
him.
“For Jason to go above and
beyond for someone he did not
know, and to take that much
time and effort, it’s just incredi-
ble,” she said.
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Exciting outdoor job
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Basic training class
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Legal Notice
LEGISLATIVE PUB-
LIC HEARING NO-
TICE BEND CITY
COUNCIL
PROJECT NUMBER:
PZ-20-0479 APPLI-
CANT: City of Bend.
NATURE OF THE
APPLICATION: Leg-
islative amendments
to the Bend Compre-
hensive Plan and the
Bend Development
Code to implement
the Southeast Area
Plan, including adop-
tion of the Southeast
Area Plan Summary
Report as an ap-
pendix to the Bend
Comprehensive
Plan. APPLICABLE
CRITERIA:
Bend
Development Code
Section
4.6.200
available at https://
w w w. c o d e p u b -
lishing.com/OR/
Bend/#!/BendDC04/
BendDC0406.
html#4.6.200
and
upon
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PROPERTY LOCA
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PROPERTY LOCA-
TION: The South-
east
Expansion
Area aka “the Elbow”
includes 31 proper-
ties located between
15th Street and the
existing City limits
to the west, Knott
Road to the south,
27th Street to the
east, and Ferguson
Road and the exist-
ing City limits to the
north. DATE AND
TIME OF THE VIR-
TUAL CITY COUN-
CIL HEARING: April
7, 2021, 7:00 p.m.
Attendance instruc-
tions will be posted
on the City Council
website at https://
www.bendoregon.
g o v / g o ve r n m e n t /
city-council/city-coun-
cil-meeting-agen-
das-video prior to
the hearing. ADDI-
TIONAL INFORMA-
TION: The proposed
Comprehensive Plan
and
Development
Code amendments,
all documents and
evidence submitted
by all parties and
the application cri-
teria are available
for digital inspection
upon request at no
cost and hard cop-
ies will be provid-
ed at a reasonable
cost.
CONTACT
PERSON: Damian
Syrnyk at (541) 312-
4919,
dsyrnyk@
b e n d o r e g o n . g o v.
Written comments
may be submitted
at any time prior
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email to the con-
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above, or by mail
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Growth
Manage-
ment Division, 709
NW Wall St., Suite
102, Bend, Oregon
97703, or attend the
virtual meeting and
state your views.
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conducted in ac-
cordance with BDC
Section 4.1.500.
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Public Notice
BEND OREGON
BRANCH
SPOKANE,
WASH-
INGTON
APPLICATION
BY
INSURED
STATE
NON-MEMBER
BANK TO ESTAB-
LISH A BRANCH
Notice is hereby giv-
en that Washington
Trust Bank, P.O.
Box 2127, West 717
Sprague
Avenue,
Spokane, Washing-
ton 99210, has filed,
with the Federal
Deposit Insurance
Corporation, an ap-
plication to establish
a new branch known
as the Bend Oregon
Branch at 1203 NE
Third Street, Bend,
OR 97701. Any per-
son wishing to com-
ment on this appli-
cation may file his
or her comment in
writing with the Re-
gional Director of the
Federal Deposit In-
surance Corporation
at its regional office,
25 Jessie Street at
Ecker Square, Suite
2300, San Fran-
cisco,
California,
94105, not later than
the 15th day follow-
ing the date of this
publication. The peri-
od may be extended
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tor for good cause.
The non-confidential
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cation file is avail-
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and may be inspect-
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during regular busi-
ness hours. Photo-
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in the non-confiden-
tial portion of the
application file will
be made available
upon request. Pub-
lished pursuant to
Section 303.7(b) of
the Rules and Regu-
lations of the Feder-
al Deposit Insurance
Corporation.
Jim Branson
Senior Vice President
Director
of
Retail
Banking
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Legal Notice
NOTICE TO INTER-
ESTED PERSONS
MARSHA ANN HAN-
SEN has been ap-
pointed
Personal
Representative
of
the ESTATE OF
DOROTHY JULIA
WILLIAMS,
De-
ceased, by the Cir-
cuit Court, State of
Oregon, Deschutes
County, under Case
Number 21PB01213.
All persons having
a claim against the
estate must present
the claim within four
months of the first
publication
date:
March 17, 2021 of
this notice to Driscoll
Law, LLC, at 532
SW 13 th St, Suite
100, Bend, Oregon,
97702, ATTN: Corey
P. Driscoll, or they
may be barred. Ad-
ditional information
may be obtained
from the court re-
cords, the Personal
Representative, or
the following-named
attorney for the Per-
sonal Representa-
tive.
COREY P. DRISCOLL
OSB #154933
DRISCOLL LAW, LLC
532 SW 13 TH ST,
STE 100
BEND, OR 97702
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