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Andy Corbley
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Mar 19, 2024
When New Hampshire resident Jake McAlpin accidentally threw away his daughter’s favorite stuffed animal, the town leadership took a whole day out to help find it.
Cupcake is a floppy-eared dog that daughter Charlotte received for Christmas when she was four. Though a grown woman, Cupcake was never far from her side.
Then one day, disaster.
“I said, ‘What are you looking for?’ And she goes, ‘Cupcake,’ and somewhere in the back of my head was like, is that the stuffed animal I just took to the dump?” McAlpin told WMUR News 9 New Hampshire.
Mother Meredith put out a post on Facebook asking if anyone was available to open the dump for them that Thursday.
The post was picked up by Brian Monahan, the “Selectman” for the town of Strafford which is a Mid-Atlantic government position that serves as board member and chief administrative authority of a town in all New England states but not Rhode Island.
Monahan sent a screenshot of what Meredith had written to a colleague with keys to the dump, and asked if they could go find Cupcake and bring her home safe.
On a rainy Thursday morning, the two began searching through trash compactors that had smushed the municipal waste bags so thoroughly that Monahan’s colleague Dan had to use a backhoe to loosen it enough so they could use their hands.
Arriving to see what had transpired, McAlpin witnessed the effort being put in in the name of his daughter’s toy and lept into the trash to help. Together they found it, to the great relief of McAlpin, and then eventually, to Charlotte.
“It made us feel pretty good no one wants to be without their stuffy, and the smile on her face said it all,” said Dan Conway, superintendent of the Strafford Recycling Center.
Archive
Town Leaders Help Dig Beloved Stuffed Animal out of Trash Compactor Using More Than Just Their Hands
ByAndy Corbley
-
Mar 19, 2024
When New Hampshire resident Jake McAlpin accidentally threw away his daughter’s favorite stuffed animal, the town leadership took a whole day out to help find it.
Cupcake is a floppy-eared dog that daughter Charlotte received for Christmas when she was four. Though a grown woman, Cupcake was never far from her side.
Then one day, disaster.
“I said, ‘What are you looking for?’ And she goes, ‘Cupcake,’ and somewhere in the back of my head was like, is that the stuffed animal I just took to the dump?” McAlpin told WMUR News 9 New Hampshire.
Mother Meredith put out a post on Facebook asking if anyone was available to open the dump for them that Thursday.
The post was picked up by Brian Monahan, the “Selectman” for the town of Strafford which is a Mid-Atlantic government position that serves as board member and chief administrative authority of a town in all New England states but not Rhode Island.
Monahan sent a screenshot of what Meredith had written to a colleague with keys to the dump, and asked if they could go find Cupcake and bring her home safe.
On a rainy Thursday morning, the two began searching through trash compactors that had smushed the municipal waste bags so thoroughly that Monahan’s colleague Dan had to use a backhoe to loosen it enough so they could use their hands.
Arriving to see what had transpired, McAlpin witnessed the effort being put in in the name of his daughter’s toy and lept into the trash to help. Together they found it, to the great relief of McAlpin, and then eventually, to Charlotte.
“It made us feel pretty good no one wants to be without their stuffy, and the smile on her face said it all,” said Dan Conway, superintendent of the Strafford Recycling Center.
