Serving an ace

By KEITH COUSINS

Staff Writer

COEUR d’ALENE — Homeless, with three children, Rachael Garwick was stuck on the side of Interstate 90 Friday morning wondering if the bad luck she’d been dealt over the past two days would ever subside.

Salvation came from an unexpected place, the men’s tennis team from Radford University in Virginia.

The Press reported Friday that Garwick and her children’s few belongings — clothing, her kids’ birth certificates, a few toys and other small items — were in a U-Haul trailer stolen early Thursday from the parking lot of a Post Falls hotel where the family was staying.

In the area to compete this week against Gonzaga and Eastern Washington University, the tennis players read about Garwick’s plight. A man associated with the Virginia team called the newspaper Friday morning.

“I’m not rich, but I can help out,” he said. “Karma always comes back — maybe we’ll win our tennis match today because of it.”

He said he wasn’t looking for publicity or acknowledgement for the random act of kindness, just maybe some better luck after “being taken to the woodshed” by Gonzaga on Thursday. He did not want to be identified.

The Press connected Garwick and her anonymous benefactor by phone, and they met near Spokane where the man gave Garwick $500 and filled her gas tank.

For Garwick, it was a life-changing gift that arrived in the nick of time.

“This is beyond amazing. I went from just wanting to throw up at thinking about having to look my kids in the eyes and tell them I didn’t know what we were going to do, to ‘We’re getting help!’” Garwick said. “I went from feeling horrible to ‘Oh my gosh people are amazing.’”

Garwick, a Tacoma, Wash., native, recently attempted to relocate to Kootenai County with her three kids. The relocation was unsuccessful, leaving Garwick homeless and ready to move to the Tri-Cities area in southeastern Washington where she has secured a job.

After loading up the small U-Haul trailer, she parked it Wednesday at the Post Falls hotel where someone had paid for a room for the family. While Garwick and her kids slept, someone in a gold-colored Ford F-150 removed the trailer from Garwick’s Chevy Impala, hooked it to the pickup truck and drove away.

Without any belongings, or any indication she would be able to make it to the Tri-Cities with her family, Garwick said she used the last $3.54 she had to her name to put gas in her vehicle.

That’s when Garwick received that unexpected call.

Garwick said the funds will not only help her family get to their new start in the Tri-Cities, but help them replace things like clothing that were lost when the trailer was stolen. She thanked the tennis team from Virginia, as well as people in North Idaho who she said were gracious and helped any way they could.

“I want to tell everybody thank you for the kindness they showed,” Garwick said.