Lost & Found Happy Ending

Hey all!

As many of you know, Arielle Semmel, HI Educational Programs Coordinator, and I participated in a special exhibit in the new School of the Art Institute gallery space in the Sullivan Center (old Carson’s building). The exhibit invited local artists and other community people to create a mini art exhibition in a department store display case. We created our own HI-Chicago case comprised of left objects found in the hostel. The hostel is place where people from all sorts of backgrounds come together and the random objects they leave behind is the only “evidence” of that exchange – so we want to put them on display.

The objects that we found, both in lost and found and things left in rooms, were all over the place: Japanese pink slippers, phone chargers, a bathing suit, Russian hair gel, German dandruff shampoo, and on and on. Arielle and I were particularly fond of a particular object. Here is the story of that as she relayed to the people over at Department Store:

Just wanted to share in our fun. It was a great experience to be part of the Department (Store) exhibit – and much good has come of it. Because of our participation, Jessica and I searched through the unclaimed items in lost and found, found this boy’s jacket and while taking the documentation photos found all the goodies in his pockets, and now we will be able to reunite this special item with it’s owner. He sounds very happy about it – see the exchange below.

Jessica and I have photos of our case we will send, but is there a general website for the exhibit that I could direct him to for general information about it?

Cheers!
Arielle


Arielle Semmel
December 18 at 4:11pm
Is this Dermot Ryan who stayed at Hostelling International Chicago in June? We think we may have your jacket. If this is you, please let me know. Cheers!ArielleHI-Chicago staff


Dermot Ryan
December 18 at 7:22pm
i had actually given up on that jacket!! that is amazing. it has a seahorse logo with MAR SOC on the chest, its black and my name is on the sleve. how did you find me? i really hope it is! thank you so much. Dermot


Arielle Semmel
Today at 9:27am
Yay! We found you!This past fall, the hostel participated in an exhibit at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago called Deptartment (Store) where we filled a department store glass case with left items from the hostel. Many of the items in our case were unclaimed things from the lost and found. We wanted to use your jacket, and when got ready to put it in the case we noticed there was a bunch of stuff in the pockets - coins, things from various oceanariums and aquariums...and your student ID! We just knew we had to get all those things back to you somehow.Now the exhibit is closed and we're doing end-of-year cleaning and have restarted the search - we didn't have your email on file, and thus Facebook. Yay!The address we have on file is:###GalwayIrelandIs this still correct? Is there another place we should send it to?Cheers!Arielle


Dermot Ryan
Today at 11:12am
that is amazing!!! i am actually in england for a week but will be back at that address by the 28th december. it would be really wonderfull if you would post it to me. i really cant believe it! it is a very special jacket and have missed it. would it also be possible to get a photo of it in the exhibit. that really would be great. you have restored my fait in the goodness of humanity. thank you. Dermot


Arielle Semmel
Today at 11:28am
No worries. We'll work on posting the jacket to you. I've got to dig out the photos of exhibit, but will send those along shortly.Have fun in England and safe journey home!Arielle

So hooray for happy endings and travelers that are so easily inclined to see good in other people!