A generous gift is gently accepted

From the voice mails and snail mail:

GOOD DEEDS -- While shopping in Modesto on Valentine's Day, Claire Taro of Valley Home noticed a gentleman behind her standing in line, carrying four flower bouquets.

"I said, 'Do you really have that many wives?' " she said. "The guys behind us kind of laughed."

The man told her the bouquets were for his wife, daughter and two daughters-in-law.

Taro had several items in her basket and was in no particular hurry. So she asked whether he wanted to go ahead of her in line.

He accepted her offer and went ahead. As she completed her purchases, he stood at the end of the check stand.

"He was putting his stuff back in his wallet and said, 'Here,' and handed me a $20 bill," Taro said. "He said, 'Go out tonight.' "

She accepted -- not because she needed the money, but because it was a generous act that didn't need to be rebuffed.

"I was always taught to accept a gift with a 'thank you,' " she said. "Not, 'You shouldn't have done this, you shouldn't have done that.' "

He then left the store, before she could learn his name.

"I still can't get over it," she said.

She called me to share the story because it was such a positive experience and needed to be shared.

"It's good to hear about the good things instead of bad things," Taro said.

HELLO, NEWMAN -- In my Feb. 14 column, I wrote about how the city of Newman's police force wants to bring back the K-9 program that went dormant in the mid-1980s. The city has earmarked $10,000 to resurrect the program. The officers need to raise the remaining $15,000. It's odd to think about police officers having to do fund-raisers for their programs, but that's what the Newman force faces.

E.F. Cash-Dudley, who owns a law firm in Modesto, doesn't think it should be that difficult. She sent a check for $100, accompanied by a note that, in effect, challenged other attorneys to pony up to the dog fund.

"If every attorney in Stanislaus County would give $100, you would be over your goal in no time," she wrote. "It could be called: The Attorneys for Crime Prevention K-9 corps."

BUILDING A DREAM -- The La Loma Neighborhood Association recently received a $60,000 grant from Kaboom, an organization that helps neighborhoods and schools build play equipment. On Feb. 6, children from the La Loma area designed a play structure that will be built by their parents and other adults in the neighborhood in Moran Estates Park on Encina Avenue.

The plan is to set up the structure March 29, with hopes the project will be finished in time for César Chávez Day (March 31), said Mike Moradian, who heads the neighborhood association.

Jeff Jardine's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in Local News. He can be reached at jjardine@modbee.com or 578-2383.