Reuniting World War II Heirlooms with the McEuan Family

While cleaning out her shed, Mary McEuan came across a lock box that couldn’t be opened. Assuming that the box was empty, Mary dropped it off as a donation to our Six Mile Rd. store in Mt. Pleasant. Little did she know that the box was filled with hidden family heirlooms that date back to World War II.

Incredibly, the donations team was able to open the box and discovered a handful of vintage letters and photographs. Roy Adams, a Palmetto Goodwill team member, recognized six cent air mail stamps on each of the letters.

Upon further investigation, it was discovered that these letters were written by a sailor aboard a ship in the Pacific over a three year period from 1942-1945. Knowing that these items were likely of sentimental value to the donor, the donations team made it their mission to reunite the box with it’s owner.

Steve Cavanaugh, the Store Manager, was able to use clues found within the lock box to track down Mrs. McEuan and share what was hidden within. On March 1st, Mrs. McEuan stopped by the store to retrieve the box and thank Steve and his team.

Palmetto Goodwill is very proud of Steve, Roy and all our team members, who always work tirelessly to embody Goodwill’s core values of kindness, integrity and service. We are so happy to hear that our team was able to not only return this item to a valued donor, but to also return the sentiment that came along with it!