JOSH DAVIS/BAYSIDE GAZETTE
Snow Hill Mayor Stephen Mathews last Tuesday presents a commendation to Four Seasons Pizza owner Mustafa Ozgan for helping a frequent customer, Dean Perdue, during a time of need.

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Dec. 20, 2018) While the Dec. 11 Snow Hill Town Council meeting had its share of controversy, it did have its lighter moments, including the public recognition of an act of kindness by a local business.

Mayor Stephen Mathews presented a commendation to Four Seasons Pizza owner Mustafa Ozgan for helping a frequent customer, Dean Perdue.

According to Mathews, Perdue struggles to get around and uses a walker. When a delivery person from Four Seasons noticed that Perdue was having difficulties, he told the storeowner and they decided to buy Perdue a new walker.

“The delivery driver saw that the customer had experienced a recent fall that resulted in his walker having a broken leg, making his mobility compromised,” Mathews said in delivering the commendation. “The delivery driver wrote down the information on the walker [and] returned to the restaurant and consulted with the business owner, who ordered a brand-new walker for the customer, providing personal delivery and setup, so the gentleman would have full mobility and a new walker.”

“Random acts of kindness such as these show empathy and the genuine compassion for others,” he added.

Ozgan took the occasion to apologize for some of his drivers who, he said with a laugh, “sometimes … drive a little aggressively.”

He also credited his delivery driver for the act of kindness.

“This was totally from the driver … the driver actually paid for this,” he said. “It kind of shows, they’re not so bad!”

Ozgan also addressed an earlier part of the meeting, when several local business owners said they were unhappy with the treatment of one local business, while town officials countered the public did not yet know the whole story.

“I think we’re here to serve the town … and I do feel there’s a mutual respect,” he said. “We just need to, I don’t know, work it out.”

Perdue said he was grateful to the town and to local businesses.

“I’ve been involved with … probably all of them within the community over my many years,” he said, adding that another driver from Four Seasons “delivered to me today.”

“Today is one my regular days that I call and order, so I’m very grateful to the Town of Snow Hill and as well to Four Seasons pizza for doing this,” he said. “It’s been very rare in my 58 years when I’ve had need of things for assistance that anybody has done anything like this to help me, and it is greatly appreciated.”