Two Jefferson Students Save a Woman's Weekend

Good Deeds is a new column on Woodridge Patch highlighting good works people have performed around the community.

Joan Petersen's "faith in humanity" has been restored.

Petersen, of Aurora, was grabbing breakfast Tuesday morning at the Dunkin Donuts in Woodridge. A bag of donuts and hot coffee in hand, she placed her wallet on the top of her car. She reminded herself to retrieve the wallet, but her phone rang. She drove off with the wallet, forgotten, still on her car roof.

That's when Jefferson Jr. High School seventh-graders Justice Aidoo and Ayman Zekri found it near their bus stop. They took the wallet on the bus with them and turned it in at Jefferson's front office.

The wallet contained credit cards, bank cards, a checkbook and Petersen's identification -- "her whole life," said Jefferson Principal John McClenahan. McClenahan found Petersen's home phone number on her checkbook and gave her a call.

Meanwhile, Petersen had gone to work at Coldwater Creek in the Bolingbrook Promenade. She called home to see if she had any messages, just in case. That's when she heard the voicemail from McClenahan.

"The parents have done a good job on these young men," Petersen said.

It's Petersen's husband's birthday this weekend. Finding her wallet meant she could still take him out.

"I would have had no way to write a check," she said. "I would have had to cancel all my checks. I was thinking of what credit cards I had. I had cash, which I never had, but I went to the ATM last night."

Petersen retrieved her wallet from Jefferson and gave $20 to each of the students. McClenahan said the students would be rewarded by the school, as well.

"It comes from the family, when the kids are honest like that," McClenahan said. "So we like to give them a gift card like to Home Run Inn that the family can use."