While watching a movie July 15 at the Capitol Theatre, a youth’s bike was stolen, however, the story takes a positive twist.
The owners of the theatre were unable to locate the stolen bicycle or the culprit involved. General manager Gurjit Sandhu said they wanted to help out in any way possible.
“We decided to help in a way we know the victim of the stolen bike would appreciate,” said Sandhu in an email.
The family-owned business stepped up and bought the young man a gift certificate to Sport Chek to get him a new bike. He and his parents were quite pleased, said Sandhu. “He was extremely appreciative and happy that we bought him a gift card.”
They shared the story on Facebook, which garnered 600 likes, 30 shares and over 50 comments, he added.
“We really didn’t expect that kind of reaction, but happy to see that everyone is showing their support,” Sandhu explained.
“As a family that has a couple businesses in town, we think that giving back to the community is very important.”
He is grateful to residents for their support of the business and said they want to give back to the community; this was one way of doing that.
“We live in a small town, if people didn’t support each other the way Ponoka does, it would not be as pleasant of a place to live in,” he explained.
“We are very proud to be residents of Ponoka because of the willingness to help by everyone here and because of that we will continue to do what we can.”