Frederick Douglass cheerleaders help ease the pain of football loss for one Boyle County fan

Boyle County fan Jennifer Bodner Gaddis lost her phone Friday after watching her nephews, Avery (above) and Austin Bodner, play football but got lucky when two Frederick Douglass cheerleaders found and returned her phone. (Chris Zollner Photo)

It was bad enough that Jennifer Bodner Gaddis had to watch Boyle County — her nephews, Avery and Austin Bodner, play for the Rebels — lose 37-6 to Frederick Douglass Friday  night.

However, her night briefly got worse Friday when she somehow managed to drop her cell phone as she was leaving the game and did not know she did it.

“I must have dropped it on the way out of the game. I was carrying our blankets and chairs. So I’m assuming it dropped and I just didn’t hear it fall,” she said. “We were parked along the fence line and I guess it just dropped. We got in the car and my daughter was going to a friend’s house and I didn’t realize it was gone until we got most of the way to Perryville.”

Turns out Frederick Douglass cheerleaders Bella Saadiq and Klarke Burnette found the phone as they were leaving the game. She said they got into her emergency contacts on the phone and started calling people.

“They got in touch with my son who was actually in Knoxville for the UK-Tennessee game,” she said. “He called my daughter’s phone and said some random person called from mom’s phone and said she dropped it and she has it and to give her a call back.

“I took my daughter’s phone and called my cell phone. The girl said, ‘I found your phone. Are you still here (at the game)?”

Gaddis immediately called her sister-in-law knowing she would still be there. She got the phone from the cheerleaders and Gaddis met her and retrieved her phone.

“I did not even know you could pull up emergency contacts and call because my phone has a lock on it,” Gaddis said. “We got home and were ready to go to bed and I found they had left me a video message to let me know they had the phone.”

“I didn’t know who they were or that they were cheerleaders. The video was the sweetest thing and the fact they were opposing team cheerleaders who found the phone and took time to contact me and meet my sister-in-law was so kind.”

Gaddis says she’s usually not far from her phone because of her work as a court designator specialist in Boyle and Mercer Counties who works with anyone under 18 who faces any charges.

“It’s important for me to have my phone 24/7. Once I left it on vacation but I always have my phone. It would have been a disaster if I lost my phone. I would have lost all my contact with info with deputies, judges,” she said. “It was a bad night losing the game but for us it was a reminder that there are some really great kids out there.”

Gaddis was able to identify the cheerleaders because they did not leave their names.

“I was just hoping somebody knew who they were because my husband and I wanted to send gift cards or something for their random act of kindness that meant more to me than they will ever probably realize,” Gaddis said.