SEYMOUR – A metal detector and an elected official’s judicious use of Facebook recently reunited a Seymour High School grad with a class ring she hadn’t seen since Ferris Bueller took a day off.
Laura Volk, 56, lost her SHS Class of 1986 ring during a senior picnic at Holiday Hill, a 200-acre resort in Prospect, shortly before graduating.
Volk said she had put the ring in her front pocket just as the egg toss was about to start.
At some point she reached into her pocket to retrieve it, and it was gone. Volk said she and others searched for it for a while, but eventually the students had to leave.
“I really thought the ring was gone forever,” said Volk, who now lives in Orange.
Enter Robert DeNomme, a metal detecting enthusiast (or “detectorist” for short) from Prospect.
He’s been a detectorist for a few years, and got permission to explore Holiday Hill.
“It’s a huge field and I’ve been there before and found a bunch of coins and other stuff,” DeNomme said.
DeNomme and his metal detector scanned Holiday Hill on Sunday, June 8 and, 39 years after it went missing, he found a ring under about 8 inches of soil in a grassy field.
He took his find home and carefully removed decades of dirt. That’s when he realized it was a class ring.
DeNomme said he’s found class rings before – but this one was different.
“I’ve probably found more than 25 rings altogether with my metal detector, but none ever had initials on them, until this one,” DeNomme said.
The presence of the initials meant that DeNomme had a chance to get the ring back to its owner.
“It’s kind of like a bucket list find,” he said.
He photographed the ring and sent the photos to Seymour First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis.
The photos showed a white gold ring in pristine condition, embellished with a pink birthstone, Class of ’86 and a medical insignia on one side, the SHS wildcat mascot and pawprints on another and engraved inside the ring, the initials ‘L. B. S.’
On June 9, Drugonis posted the photos to her Office of the First Selectwoman Facebook page, enlisting the help of about 7,000 followers.
The comments under the Facebook post lit up with many Seymour High School Class of ’86 graduates guessing about who the ring could belong to. Many immediately thought “L.B.S.” could be Volk’s, who was Laura Beth Schneider in 1986.
Volk saw the post, too.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s my ring!” Volk said. “I reached out in the comments and then called the First Selectwoman’s office and told her that was my ring.”
DeNomme and Volk met at The Country Corner Diner in Bethany on June 12. DeNomme gave her the class ring.
“It was perfect, just like the day when I lost it. I thought it would be rusty or deteriorated. I imagine it must’ve been mowed over so many times as it got pushed into the ground,” she said.
“She (Laura) was so happy, and I was so happy to help. And now we’re friends,” DeNomme said.
Volk and her husband, Dean, have two grown daughters, Amber, 26 and Megan, 23. She is a lab technician for a pediatrics office.
Volk said when she tried the ring on, it was a little snug on her ring finger, but too big for her pinky finger. So, for the time being she plans to put the ring on a necklace and keep it close to her heart.
“I have it on right now, and I don’t want to lose it ever again,” Volk said.