It was the exciting final day of school for students at Anderson High School in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, but it was a routine call they made to school janitor Ricky Spaulding: somebody made a mess at the closing pep rally – can he please clean it up?

But what Ricky Spaulding found couldn’t fit in any bucket. The students and staff had secretly

collected $1,900 so that Spaulding and his wife could visit their family, WLEX 18 reports.

“My son is stationed in Italy and we are going to see him,” Spaulding said. “Words can’t describe the joy that I feel right now.”

Staffers had heard that Spaulding hadn’t seen his son in a year, and had never met his grandson. Spaulding’s wife, Lisa, said the money was a “miracle.”

“It just shows how much they care and I just think it’s amazing,” she said.

Everyday people can make miracles happen. Even the younger generation, so often thought of as apathetic or uncaring, can team up to change lives. Our country’s future is brighter than we think.