Lillie Sirmans | Reporter

(Milledgeville, Ga) — Two Georgia College students put together a birthday surprise for a staff member with a big heart and a great story.

When Izzy Fleetwood and her boyfriend Parker Wyatt heard that “Mrs. Tracy,” an employee at the Books and Brew in the Russell Library, was celebrating her birthday last Thursday, they knew they had to mark the occasion.

“Just to show her how much she means to not only us, but to so many students,” Fleetwood said. “So we went to the store and got some balloons and made bouquets of balloons to give to her. We also got her some roses and a little birthday sash.”

The pair brought all of these gifts to the Books and Brew on the morning of her birthday.

When Mrs. Tracy saw Fleetwood and Wyatt with her balloons, she began squealing and dancing with joy, “I am so loved,” she exclaimed with tears in her eyes. “It blessed my soul,” she told WGUR’s Lillie Sirmans. “Words cannot explain it.”

Mrs. Tracy has been impacting students’ lives at GCSU for 30 years. Her motivation and drive to show all students kindness are rooted in her love for her son, who has high functioning autism. “I’m gonna treat you like I want somebody to treat my son. And that’s why I love y’all so much.”

Fleetwood says that Mrs. Tracy “makes everyone feel so valuable and so worth it. And just has so much light to her.”

However, she is not the only one who feels that Mrs. Tracy has touched her life. “She always asks how my day is and makes sure I have a smile on my face before I walk away from the coffee stand,” said freshman Karlee Jordan.

When asked if they knew who she was, two other freshman girls energetically replied with, “Love her!!” and “She is so sweet!!”

The life Mrs. Tracy lives reminds us that we should continually extend kindness to people because we never know the kind of impact it might have on their life. It shows us that even in the mundane of everyday ebb and flow, there is purpose.