Caught in the act of kindness

It was one of Press reporter Devin Heilman’s tougher assignments in a while: Track down a 17-year-old who really didn’t want to be tracked down.

But she persisted, and we’re glad she did. So are many of our readers.

The elusive subject was Justin Sego. Justin, who works at St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store in Coeur d’Alene while he’s dual-enrolled at Lake City High School and North Idaho College, saw a barefoot homeless man approaching several weekends ago shortly after the store had closed. Because he couldn’t get back into the store, Justin did the next best thing. He gave the man his own shoes. He then gave the man a ride to St. Vincent’s dining hall with Justin’s co-worker, Bob Frisk, who was carpooling with Justin that day.

The thing is, nobody would likely know this had happened if Frisk hadn’t brought it to people’s attention.

Justin’s remarkable feet — er, feat — kicks the teen stereotypes many of us older people hold dear. You know, teens are self-absorbed, disengaged, tech savvy at the cost of social skills and human interaction. But in Heilman’s story, Justin’s humility and his compassion — “I have plenty of shoes at my house,” he said as if that completely explained his act of kindness — aren’t quite so surprising when you read a little further.

Clearly, Justin’s family gets it. And he gets it from them.

Justin’s mother, Kimberly Sego, shared some wisdom with her son when he asked why people were making a big deal out of what he’d done:

“I said, ‘Honey, I think because as we get older, we’re all given opportunities somewhere in our life to do such a kind act, and as adults, we tend to overthink it and that moment passes,’” she said. “The adults in the community are like, ‘He did it, he did this act of kindness without overthinking it.’ Adults are inspired by that because he didn’t miss that moment.”

We’re inspired because he did not miss that moment. We’re inspired because he sought no credit. We’re inspired because Justin Sego, whose options will be wide open when he graduates in just over a year, plans to enroll in the Peace Corps. We’re inspired because Justin has always wanted to help people, and it’s pretty clear that he always will. We’re inspired because maybe, just maybe, there are a lot more Justin Segos than we realize.