Missing something? Got home with no phone or no house keys? Just bought a Stanley cup and can’t remember which classroom it was left in? Mr. Jeff Miller , activities director, can help!

Miller established a Lost-and-Found room last year–complete with QR Code to register any items missing so that the owner and the item can be reunited. However, Elkhart High School’s Lost-and-found is filling up. Miller jokingly noted that it shouldn’t be called Lost-and-Found. It should just be called Lost, since so few people are picking up their belongings. Last year, when Miller generated the missing-item Google form to fill out, many people submitted forms. This year,  there seems to be less awareness of this process; thus, overall, students stopped using the form. As a result, this year, that is not even an option. 

Originally, the location for the Lost-and-Found was right in Miller’s office. This year, it has been moved out  and into a locked room for security purposes. However, all one needs to do is ask Miller is said-item is in there, and the two can go take a look. “It’s very rare that people find or come and pick up items that they’re missing,” Miller adds with a sense of disappointment. “I don’t know if it’s because they don’t know we have it, or they just don’t ask.” Pausing to process the situation, Miller comes to this conclusion: “I would say the rate of losing items is exponentially higher than the rate of items that find their owner.” 

Waiting for their owners are innumerable cell phones, house keys, rings, earrings, make-up cases, umbrellas, shoes, clothing galore, and even water bottles in every shape, size, and color. “It is an absolute disaster at times–just boxes of clothing items and jewelry and trinkets!” Miller confesses. “If it’s something really valuable, I won’t leave it in those boxes, such as a phone or a nice ring you wouldn’t want anyone taking. But, nothing is getting picked up.”

There is still time for those who lost items–even from the very first day of school this year–to contact Miller to see whether it has been found. But, as the school year draws closer to an end, time is running out. At the end of the year, all items are discarded from that room–either to Goodwill or the trash.  Wouldn’t it be a shame if Grandma’s diamond ring ended up lost forever?