By Joel Wass
Editor-in-Chief
It’s comforting to know that while there are some who go out of their way to spread hate at Ryerson, there are others who make an equal effort spreading kindness.
Vince Solmito is part of the latter. Last Tuesday night, some 24 hours after Ryerson security caught a man alledgedly posting hate literature on campus, Vince, a custodian at Ryerson for the past 13 years, found a black fanny pack containing $800 in bills and change in the HUB cafeteria. Vince could have taken the money and handed the pack over to the lost and found.
No one would have been the wiser. And who could blame him? You can buy a lot with $800: A Swiss-Submariner-Silver Rolex watch, a seven-day cruise of the Eastern Caribbean or both Larry Bird’s and Magic Johnson’s rookie cards.
Those are some prime purchases – even basketball haters have to know those cards are going up in value – yet Vince never considered keeping the money. Instead, he made sure the cash returned to the right hands.
“Hey, I got less money in my pocket, but I feel good in my heart.”
He checked the pack for ID, contacted security and RyeSAC, made sure the pack’s owner was contacted and then hand-delivered it back.
Turns out the pack belonged to Mohammad Kamali, a third-year industrial engineering student. The money belonged to Canpark, the company Kamali works for as a parking attendant.
Vince’s act was heroic – and I don’t use that term loosely – but he doesn’t see it that way. “I’m no angel, I’m just like everybody else. All I ask is that if you’re going to write a story about this, please don’t call me a cleaner. I hate it when people do that.”
I wouldn’t call him a cleaner, but I would like to thank him for taking the first step towards cleaning up the image of a campus that needs more class acts like Vince around.
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