ASHLAND — Sherry Bolner and Jean-Marie Young say they’d love to get their hands on the person who stole Bolner’s enclosed utility trailer over Labor Day weekend.

They’d sure teach that individual a lesson he’d never forget.

Not by exacting physical revenge, mind you, although one gets the idea that certainly wouldn’t be out of the question.

However, what the two women said they’d really like to do is force the thief to look directly into the eyes of some of the people who were the true victims of his actions.

If that doesn’t cause him to feel remorse for his actions, they said, then nothing ever would.

The trailer, which was stolen from the Genesis Electric garage on Midland Trail, was loaded with donated items that were to have been delivered to a church that assists impoverished families in eastern Kentucky.

The women had been collecting the items since their last trip to the Homecoming Church of Jesus Christ in Martin County, which was in June. The trailer was “filled to the top,” Bolner said, with clothing, furniture, food, school supplies, household items and other miscellany the women had gathered from friends and relatives.

“It was heavy,” Bolner said. “Whoever took it had to know it was full.”

However, she said there was nothing in the trailer that was of particular value — except, of course, to people in need.

The person or persons responsible for the theft simply hooked up the trailer and towed it away, Bolner said. The Boyd County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the theft.

What made the incident particularly heartbreaking, Bolner said, was the fact she and Young had attended an event at the church on Sept. 5, but opted not to take the trailer. The church had just received several other shipments and the two didn’t want to overwhelm the people there, she said.

Bolner, who owns Genesis Electric with her husband, Mike, a retired Ashland firefighter, said she discovered the trailer was missing the Tuesday after Labor Day. She said she spent that entire day crying, and it’s still difficult for her to talk about the theft without emotion creeping into her voice.

Bolner and Young both said they were motivated to do something to help those living in poverty by the Diane Sawyer 20/20 special “A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains,” which aired on ABC in February. The program depicted the hardscrabble lives of several children and their families living in rural eastern Kentucky.

They chose the Homecoming Church on Calf Creek, about 10 miles from Inez, as their beneficiary. The church’s pastor, Elmer Harris, and his wife, Betty, operate a relief agency out of the church, provided food, clothing, toiletries and other items to the needy in the region.

The trailer load of items that was stolen would have been the fourth the women delivered to the church, Young said.

Bolner said she found it amazing that the church had received shipments of donated items from all over the United States, but she and Young were the only Kentucky residents who’d ever brought anything.

Bolner and Young said they were deeply rewarded by their efforts and touched by the plights of the people they’d met, including several who were in the Sawyer special.

After discovering the theft, Bolner said she contacted Betty Harris in tears. The pastor’s wife offered her a bit of advice, she said.

“She told me, ‘Don’t worry, God will bless you double,”’ she said.

That’s exactly what Bolner and Young are hoping will happen. They said they’d love to get enough donations to replace what was stolen and to be able to make another delivery to the church before the onset of cold weather.

Anyone who has items they’d like to donate may call Bolner at (606) 615-0873 or Young at (606) 615-2856.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.