Class Ring Lost in Florida Found After More Than a Year

When Taylor Holder (’17) got the news, she was ecstatic. Someone had found the class ring she lost in Florida more than a year prior and shipped it back to Campbell’s Office of Alumni Engagement in hopes that it would find its owner.

After graduating from Campbell in 2017, Taylor went back to pursue a pharmaceutical degree. On fall break in 2019, Taylor went down to Cocoa Beach, Florida, and visited her boyfriend with her sister, Megan (’20). While there, they toured the Visitor Complex of the Kennedy Space Center where her boyfriend, Joseph, worked. 

Taylor always wore her class ring, so of course, she had it with her on the trip.

“My class ring is something that I cherish…I love wearing my ring and meeting people who recognize Campbell’s class ring or also wears one.”

To Taylor, her class ring symbolizes all her hard work, the relationships she made, and the experiences she and her family have had at Campbell. “Campbell has been really good to me and my family. My dad works at Campbell, my sister went to Campbell, and I went to Campbell for undergrad and now pharmacy school. I am very appreciative for the school and the opportunities it has provided for my family.”

During an outing to Cape Canaveral, she took the ring off her finger because it was growing uncomfortable in the heat. When she got back home, Taylor realized it was not in her purse or bags. She called her boyfriend, who searched for the ring but found nothing. After several weeks of failing to find her ring, Taylor stopped searching.

Then in January, a year and five months after she first lost it, Taylor got a shocking email from the Office of Alumni Engagement saying they had her ring.

“I had convinced myself that I somehow dropped it off the pier and it was gone forever…I felt so lucky and grateful that someone found my ring and mailed it to Campbell for it to be returned to me. I lost it so long ago so this was completely unexpected.”

As it turns out, Julia Brewster found her ring in a parking lot in Florida. At first, she did not realize it was a class ring and left it in a drawer. Later, as she and her mother Pamela were cleaning, they rediscovered it. Pamela recognized it as a class ring, took a picture of the insignia, and blew up the image to find the school. Then she googled Campbell University, found contact information for the Alumni Office, and asked for their help in finding who the ring belonged to. “I’m glad they could help return this college memento to its owner.”