Official Lost and Found Day 2021

With all of the loss the world has experienced over the past many months, it seems rather ridiculous to focus on stuff like lost coats and cell phones. We’ve lost time, people and, at times, we’ve lost direction. The planet seems splintered into more and more divergent factions. But what can a made-up Lost and Found Day do to help? Honestly, not much, but it can serve as a reminder and an inspiration.

Maybe we’ve got hats to spare
Old umbrellas everywhere
Maybe we just throw our things away
But sometimes it seems to me
A little metaphorically
We treat people just the same

We all experience loss in our lives. Let’s try to appreciate what we have, while we have it. Let’s try to appreciate who we have, while we have them. Let’s try to take care of our stuff…and each other.

Let’s try.

We gotta start somewhere, sometime. It might as well be on Official Lost and Found Day.

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Official Lost and Found Day 2019 – Is there any hope?

Our school, Chautauqua Elementary on Vashon Island, Washington, has suffered from “Lost and Found Syndrome” for many, many years. Children (and some adults) lose items (mostly coats) constantly, but never seem to look for those items. So, naturally, our Lost and Found grows and grows. We have reached out to students, staff and families, trying to rectify this problem and reconnect the items with the ones who left them behind. Videos, songs, direct pleas, class by class reconnaissance missions; heck, it’s why we created Official Lost and Found Day in the first place. And yet, the issue remains. This year we just hung the items in front of the school so that students and families might recognize something on their way past. But, it seems to be a lost cause. So, as usual, we will be donating the items to a local charity, clearing out space, so we can start collecting items again in January, so we can donate those items at the end of the school year. And this is our routine, year after year, after year.

Don’t let this happen to you. Please look for your stuff. With a little effort, you may experience an Official Lost and Found Day miracle!

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We’re Still Here!

As the creators of Official Lost and Found Day, we don’t blog much, as is evident from our lack of numerous blogs. But we’re still out here, watching and wishing everyone a Happy and Successful Official Lost and Found Day. It’s kind of crazy how big this day has become. Each year we see more and more companies, organizations, websites and even government agencies embracing the feel-good celebration of reuniting lost items with their owners on Official Lost and Found Day.

There’s no mystery as to why. The Lost and Found is a universal conundrum. Millions of things are lost and found every year. Some big, some small, some important, some…not so much. Sometimes we reconnect with our lost item without any intervention, like digging our car keys out of the couch, again. Sometimes we’d never find that lost coat without someone else’s thoughtful gesture of bringing it to the airport’s lost and found. It’s a cornucopia of possibilities and we’re all in this together.

So thanks to everyone who has felt the spirit of Official Lost and Found Day and trumpeted its message.

What’s been lost CAN be found!

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Let Us Know How You Celebrate Lost and Found Day!

There’s a comment section right below this. If you’ve joined the Official Lost and Found Celebration Wagon, please leave a comment and let us know what you’ve done to celebrate!

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We’re Officially Official!

We managed to forget to post this last year, but we have been accepted by the wonderful folks at Chase’s Calendar of Events Headquarters as the Official Lost and Found Day Day! I’m not sure we had much competition, but it doesn’t really matter. Now, on every second Friday of every December, you can confidently wish all of your friends, family, and acquaintances a Happy Official Lost and Found Day! knowing you’re celebrating the real deal day. And while it’s good to look for your lost stuff any day of the year, Official Lost and Found Day is good time to give it an extra effort.

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We’ve Submitted Our Entry to Be Official!

Though our school has always had a special place in our hearts for the Lost and Found, it wasn’t until December of 2012 that we actually celebrated Official Lost and Found Day. We thought it would end there, just us, in our little corner of the world, celebrating on our own each December. But then we learned that we could actually take this to new levels.

We discovered that Official Lost and Found Day didn’t officially exist, anywhere. So we figured, why couldn’t our Official Lost and Found Day be the Official Lost and Found Day?

So it is, on March 11th, 2013 that we have officially submitted our Official Day to the keeper of Official Days, the honorable folks at Chase’s Calendar of Events. They’ll look us over and determine whether or not we’re worthy. If we’re accepted we’ll be listed in their annual event guide and the whole world can join us in celebrating the Lost and Found.

Gosh, we’ll have to get our act together!

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Welcome to the Official Lost and Found Day website

The second Friday of each December the world turns its attention to Official Lost and Found Day.  And if it doesn’t, well it should.  It is on that day that we take a moment to recall the stuff we’ve lost and perhaps make an effort to find it.

 

That coat we think we left at the movie theater but, well, it’s not on the way and when we called all we got was movie times?  It might still be there.  The glasses we left when we got coffee?  Sure we had an extra pair at home but we wouldn’t forget $50 there and not go back for it, would we?  The thing is, the $50 would probably be long gone, but the glasses?  Probably sitting in an assistant managers desk drawer.

 

And what about the backpack you left at school.  You checked once or twice at the main office and it wasn’t there but perhaps somebody grabbed it by mistake because it looked just like theirs and after it sat in their dorm room for two weeks they finally brought it back to school and now the backpack is there waiting for you.  Don’t assume the worst?  Take another look.

 

Official Lost and Found Day is a day for renewed hope and belief that lost items should never be forgotten or abandoned to lost and found limbo.  Please take a moment on Official Lost and Found Day to make one more effort, one more leap of faith, that what you’ve lost isn’t gone, it’s just not conveniently handy.  Reach out, make a call, stop by the office, retrace your steps.  What was lost can be found.  It’s up to you.

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