Melcher-Dallas — It was a warm June day in 2006 when Melcher-Dallas’ Kelsey Maxfield went swimming at Lake Red Rock with some of her friends. While enjoying the refreshment of a cool dip, she noticed she had lost her class ring.
“I tried to find it,” Kelsey said. “I couldn’t.” Losing the ring saddened her. She did not want to disappoint her parents, Amy and Mark Maxfield.
“I was worried that my parents were going to be really, really mad,” Kelsey said. They were not mad, but they knew how much the ring meant to Kelsey.
“We thought it was gone,” Amy said.
“It was just an accident that happened,” Mark said.
The Maxfield family accepted the fact that the ring was gone. Kelsey graduated with the class of 2008 and moved on to study forensic science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
One day last summer, Vinton metal detecting enthusiasts Steve and Phyllis Allendar came to Lake Red Rock to do some exploring. The Allendars have been metal detecting enthusiasts for 12 years. Their interest in the hobby has gotten to the point at which they have equipment that can detect metal underwater.
They were both underwater when Steve noticed he had something. Reaching down with his specialized digging tool, he sifted through the silt from the bottom of the lake. Coming through the silt was a small, silver ring.
“I got one!” Steve called out to Phyllis. They took it home and cleaned it off. They saw the word “Dallas” inside and thought someone vacationing from Texas had lost the ring.
“We’d never heard of Melcher-Dallas,” Steve says.
“It sounded like it was Texas to us,” Phyllis added. They held on to the ring, but didn’t give it much more thought.
That is, until this winter. They are eager to get back into nature, sunshine, warm temperatures and metal detecting. This eagerness to resume their hobby prompted Steve to begin searching for the owner of the ring.
Through the Internet, they came upon the Melcher-Dallas School District Web site. They contacted School Superintendent Steve Mitchell to see if he knew the girl whose name was inscribed inside the ring. Mitchell was very happy the ring was found.
Mitchell touted the things the Maxfield family have done for the school district and the Melcher-Dallas community. In preparation for this story, we wanted to interview the Maxfield parents together. Amy was on her way home from work while Mark was on his way to the high school to fix a wheel on the school’s popcorn machine. As excited as Mitchell was that this ring was recovered, the excitement only grew for those involved.
“I was tickled to death,” was Steve’s reaction to finding the owner.
“I was shocked, really,” Mark said when he heard the good news. The fact that Steve went the extra mile to find Kelsey also pleased him. “He’s got quite a bit of research in. I think the one who is really thankful is probably Kelsey.”
“I just thought that was quite interesting,” Kelsey said. “I would like to thank him for finding my class ring.”
“I was excited,” Amy said.
The Allendars’ passion for metal detecting remains strong. They often go to parks and, with permission, dig. Quite often, they find more useless metal than rings.
“You have to dig up a lot of pop tabs to find gold rings,” Steve said. They came to Marion County this week and toured Melcher-Dallas.
In the coming weeks, when Kelsey has spring break, they plan to come back to give her the ring she lost nearly four years ago. As for Amy and Mark, they are eager to meet the man who will be able to return their daughter’s prized possession.
“I look forward to meeting him in person,” Mark said.
Features
The return of the ring
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