September 7, 2021

Wow Story: Not All Angles Are Blue

Matthew Dobias, Maintenance Manager, Experience Leader
Villa Logo, Ft. Worth, TX
Employee since 2013

At Venterra, we strive to bring joy to our residents every day. When one of our younger residents missed a U.S. Navy Blue Angel flyover, we felt terrible for him and knew we had to do something to bring some joy to his day. Thankfully, our front office team acted in Blue Angel-inspired speed and made it happen for him and his family!

The Opportunity

Back in early May, the Iconic Blue Angels performed a First Responder Appreciation flyover that included several cities. On the day they flew over Fort Worth and Villa Lago Apartments, Maintenance Manager Matthew Dobias ran up to one of our third-floor vacant units and had the perfect vantage point to witness the Blue Angels in action! It instantly reminded him of all the times his dad took me to air shows when he was a kid. About ten minutes after the Blue Angels flew over Villa Lago Matthew was making my way back up to the office when he saw a kiddo sitting on the curb. Ten-year-old Jace was waiting on the Blue Angels, but they had already passed by. He excitedly said, “The Blue Angels are about to fly over us” and Matthew responded, “Aww buddy, you just missed them! They flew over about ten minutes ago.” As Matthew continued on his way, he instantly realized he just crushed a young man’s hope of seeing the Blue Angels. He felt terrible because he had just relived his own childhood and took that feeling away from Jace by breaking the bad news. He knew he had to do something to bring that joy he felt as a child back for Jace.

The Epiphany
As soon as Matthew walked into the office, he immediately told his Manager, Andrea, and Villa Lago’s BLC, Trish, the entire story. They both immediately got to work researching Blue Angel-inspired gift ideas. Matthew thought to himself, is there anything else he could do for Jace? He jumped on the computer and began feverishly trying to find any type of contact information for the Blue Angels. As most organizations do nowadays, Blue Angels have a website with contact information listed. He sent an email to the Blue Angels and told them the story of what had transpired that morning. He begged for anything they could do for Jace. He didn’t have a lot of faith that anything would come to fruition from his email but an hour later, he received a response from someone with the Blue Angels saying they would take care of Jace! He immediately replied back and thanked them for anything they could send Jace to help brighten his day.

The Wow MomentWhile he was corresponding with someone on the Blue Angels team, Andrea and Trish ordered a Blue Angels beach towel, poster and a couple of replica jets for Jace. When Jace came to the office to get a surprise package he was so excited to get these items — the smile on his face in the pictures is great! And it didn’t stop there though! About a month later the Villa Lago team received an exciting phone call from Jace’s mom letting them know that Jace had just received a package from the Blue Angels. The Blue Angels sent Jace a calendar, an official Blue Angels uniform patch, several stickers and even a portrait of the Blue Angels flying with the Signatures of the Pilots that flew over Fort Worth that day — with Jace’s first and last name on it! Jace and his family were truly appreciative of Venterra’s efforts and shocked that our team would try so hard to bring joy to someone in our community. Thank you Venterra for allowing these great moments to happen!

Loving these WOW moments? Click here to read more!