When Dallen Harrell, 24, dropped off a package at Jess Kitchel’s home in Roswell, Georgia, he noticed an “It’s a boy” sign with a large stork in the front of her home to celebrate the birth of her newborn son.
The driver visited the address a few weeks ago to deliver a box of baby formula. But instead of just leaving it on the porch and driving off to his next delivery, Dallen took a few seconds out of his day to wish the family well.
“If this is the ‘it’s a boy’ house…. I hope all is going well with your newborn. I had a child around the same time you guys did and I just hope that everything is going good, God bless and happy holidays” Dallen said into the family’s Nest Security camera system.
Dallen didn’t know how much Jess needed to hear the supportive message. She was recovering from a C-section after delivering Chancy on November 14 and was feeling a little isolated. Though simple, Dallen’s act of kindness moved Jess to the core.
“I was just so blown away by the fact… that he took the time to stop and do it, and more so that he was so observant that he remembered this was the ‘It’s a Boy’ house with the stork,” Jess, 36, told The Washington Post.
She wanted to give back to Dallen for his thoughtful gesture, so Jess shared the 26-second security camera footage on social media in hopes of identifying him.
“It is really easy to focus on what isn’t going right right now with staffing shortages but it was good to be reminded that there are still great people working hard every day for us!” Jess wrote in an Instagram post on December 4. “I really wish I knew his name but I hope he comes back and if he does there will be diapers waiting for him.”
With the help of UPS, Jess was able to quickly track down the driver’s name. A company representative informed her that someone from the local office would call her with the driver’s name.
On December 6, three days after Dallen left the heartwarming message, the pair finally spoke on the phone.
The driver shared that he also had an almost three-month-old son named Deveraux, who he shares with his fiancee, Taqueria Robinson-Davidson. He said he just wanted to extend a little kindness to a family in the same phase in life as his.
“I just went from my heart,” he said.
Jess wanted to bless Dallen for his kindness, so she linked his Buy Buy Baby and Target wish list for his baby boy to her Instagram so that people could help him clear his list.
The public delivered, and Dallen received a truckload of boxes from FedEx. Strangers all over have been sending him packages, and over half the load was for his family, said the FedEx delivery driver to Jess.
Dallen’s stint as a UPS driver was a temporary job for the holiday season, but when the company heard about his kind act, they offered him a full-time, permanent job as a driver with his own route. He gladly accepted!
“I can’t believe it all unfolded this way,” he said. “When I left the comment at the doorbell, I didn’t even expect to hear from them, and so many blessings have followed behind.”
When Dallen returned to deliver some more packages to Jess’s home five days later, she left a box filled with diapers, wipes, and a plush giraffe on the front porch for him. That’s when Dallen met the whole family; he even took some photos with Jess, Chancy, and her 4-year-old daughter Charlie.
The UPS driver moonlights as a singer and is known onstage as Lghtsknn Traumatized. He said he learned a lot about compassion after going through some challenging experiences in his life—an open-heart surgery at 13 and his father’s death five years later.
His mother also taught him to shake hands firmly, look people in the eyes, and practice kindness.
“I’d give someone the shirt off my back, and the last change in my cup holder,” he said.
The two parents have since become friends and plan to introduce their sons after the holidays.
