Locating a diamond in a pile of snow is just like, well, finding a needle in a haystack.
Just ask Bill and Trish Gourley, and Brian Boynton who accomplished just that on Christmas Eve.
The Gourley family was on their way home to Calgary when Trish noticed the diamond from her engagement ring was missing. She and her family were returning from the Spray Lake Sawmills (SLS) Family Sports Centre, where they had been skating with relatives.
They turned around. Soon the Gourley family, along with SLS Centre staff, got to work searching through the piles of snow emptied from the ice resurfacers.
“I didn’t think we’d find it. I was hesitant to even start,” said Trish.
It took 30-40 minutes of hot water, sifting and searching through the ice cleaning machine — but eventually the diamond was found.
“A needle in a haystack may have been easier to find,” said Bill.
In the end the sparkling gem caught the eye of Brian Boynton, operations supervisor at the SLS Centre. Bill said Boynton had helped the family by searching through the internal components of the machinery and in sorting through the pile of snow.
“We just want to recognize Brian’s efforts,” Bill remarked. “ He dropped everything to help us find the diamond.”
But for Boynton, the effort was all in a day’s work.
“Sure it’s my job, but this is the kind of thing that you just have to help out with,” said Boynton humbly. “You just do it.”
