Police say an elderly driver crashed his vehicle through a storefront in downtown Bath on Saturday during the city’s third annual celebration of Random Acts of Kindness Day.
Now You’re Cooking, the popular kitchenware store on Front Street, sustained extensive damage, but reopened Sunday. No injuries were reported.
Owner Mike Fear could not be reached for comment Sunday evening, but on the store’s Facebook page, workers wrote, “In the words of owner Mike Fear, you better believe we’re open today. Thank you to everyone who has sent well wishes our way.”
Bath police Cpl. Michele Small investigated the accident but could not be reached Sunday evening. The Coastal Journal quoted Small as saying that an elderly Bath man, whose name has not been released, was trying to parallel park at 49 Front St. when his vehicle went into reverse.
“He thought his foot was on the brake, but it was on the gas pedal, and he was in reverse,” Small told the weekly newspaper.
Three employees, including Fear, and a handful of customers were in the store when the accident happened around 1:20 p.m.
Fear, who was in a rear office, rushed to the front of the store after hearing what he described as an “explosion.” He went to the aid of the driver, shook his hand, and tried to comfort him, the Coastal Journal reported.
“Mike (Fear) just embodied the spirit of this day. There’s been so much kindness. This accident … is about as random as it comes,” Darreby Ambler, one of the event’s organizers, told the Coastal Journal.
Random Acts of Kindness Day was started three years ago by former Morse High School student Bryanna Ringrose as a way to get people to be nicer to one another. Ringrose is currently a student at the University of Southern Maine.
The event features pat-a-pet stations, people handing out flowers, a hugs and prayers station, and senior citizens giving life advice at a so-called Wisdom Station.
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