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I set out to help clean up the beach after a violent storm a year ago. The sight I saw was heartbreaking. The broken houses seemed to be weeping quietly. I couldn't describe how I felt. But something special among the debris (废墟) turned my day around.

I joined a club to clean up the beach after the storm last November. As I removed the debris from the beach, I noticed an object with shiny buttons in the wet sand. It was a jacket, and I was excited since Halloween was coming and I thought I had found a great costume. After picking it up, I was able to see that the jacket was from West Point (西点军校), the United States Military Academy, and it had the name “deGavre” written inside. I realized the jacket might be important to someone. I decided to find the jacket's owner and return it.

I called the West Point Museum, considering that if the family couldn't be found, the jacket should go there. The museum connected me with Kim McDermott, Director of Communications for the Academy's Association of Graduates. Kim soon ensured that the jacket had belonged to Chester Braddock deGavre, who was a 1933 graduate and a war hero, but passed away in 1993.

I sent Kim a photo of the jacket and she posted it to the West Point Association of Graduates Facebook Page, asking if anyone could help us find the family. In less than two hours, someone had found and called the hero's wife, Teresa. Soon I started to receive personal messages from members of the deGavre family, their friends and others who were touched by the story and they found me on Facebook.

Finding Chester deGavre's jacket and connecting to his family with the help of Facebook have been so meaningful to me. I've formed a bond with amazing people I might have never met.