Snow was everywhere this week in St. John’s.
At times, it was the most-read news story.
There were people complaining the city wasn’t doing a good job clearing it quickly. Mayor Danny Breen even held a news conference outside City Hall yesterday to tell reporters the city was trying its best.
It seemed everywhere one turned, someone had something to say about the mounds of snow that came with the back-to-back blizzards this week.
There was one group, however, who didn’t say too much.
Instead, they did.
Just before 10 a.m. Saturday morning, eight men met at the Techniplex parking lot near Quidi Vidi Lake.
They were armed with shovels and two snowblowers.
Their mission: find driveways and walkways that weren’t yet cleared.
They walked up Veterans Road — all was clear in that area.
They crossed the road to Churchill Avenue and came upon a few homes with uncleared walkways.
Without saying much, they got to work.
Within minutes, they’d cleared six walkways.
Their organized effort drew the attention of some area residents.
Aaron Watkins said he saw the men and knew they didn’t live in the neighbourhood. He took his dog for a walk to see what they were doing.
“I didn’t know what they were doing at first,” Watkins laughed.
“But it’s nice to hear they’re coming out and volunteering their time to shovel out some driveways – what a nice thing to do.”
By the time the group clewed up at noon, they estimate they had cleared roughly 50 walkways and dug out a dozen cars in the Livingstone Street and Churchill Avenue area.
“The theme is many hands — and a few snowblowers — make light work,” organizer Hasan Hai, with Project Kindness, told The Telegram.
“The idea was really spawned by everyone around me talking about how either they themselves helped out neighbours, or they were buried by snow and a neighbour came out to help them out, or even a stranger completely. I figured there’s a bunch of people who want to do good, why don’t we just get together and just have a greater impact?”
The Telegram asked a couple of the volunteers why they decided to spend their Saturday morning shovelling.
“I’m able-bodied, I might as well help out some people that might not be able to do it,” explained Brian Bradley.
Another volunteer, Jeffrey Silver, said he simply saw it as an opportunity to help people.
“What better thing could I do on a Saturday morning?” he said.
Note: After The Telegram left, another volunteer named Amanda Bailey joined in the shovelling effort.
Twitter: @juanitamercer_
