University of Iowa president finds note, coffee money indicative of ‘Iowa nice’

IOWA CITY — On her morning walk with husband John Lammers and their dog Ollie recently, University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson went to pick up some litter only to discover it was something more.

Near the bike rack outside Burge Residence Hall, the couple found an anonymous note apologizing for breaking someone’s bike reflector and offering $4 for a cup of coffee “on me,” according to the UI Office of Strategic Communication.

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“I’m really sorry about your bike wheel reflector — while filling up air my bike fell on yours and the reflector cracked/fell off,” according to the letter posted on the UI news website. “I hope you can accept this as an apology and that you have a good rest of your day.”

In parentheses the person wrote, “Your coffee’s on me.”

Wilson said she’s brought a bag for trash on her morning walks since moving to Iowa City — “one of Ollie’s favorite parts of the day” — but she and Lammers knew pretty quickly the letter was “more like a packet.”

“It had been there after rain, but you could just faintly see on the outside that it says, ‘To the owner of this bike’,” Lammers said.

And now they’re trying to find the person it was meant for.

“Where would you find something like that other than Iowa?” she said about the broader culture in Iowa City and the UI campus. “It was a bike reflector, but someone took the time to write out a note, put money in it, and tape it to a bike.

“I know it may be a cliché, but it’s the definition of ‘Iowa nice.’ The measure of care people here have for one another is wonderful to see.”

If you wrote the note or think it might have been meant for you, email now@uiowa.edu.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com