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Beneath the ice and headlines, the ‘storm of the century’ reveals America’s best · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:10
  You're listening to The Hidden Likenist on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
• 0:14
  I'm your host, Jimmy Hinton.
• 0:16
  Well, I promised some stories, some positive stories on this big storm that hit the United States, and boy, was it a doozy.
• 0:26
  Many states were shut down.
• 0:28
  A lot of places are still shut down in the South.
• 0:32
  I have family that lives in Nashville, and they got absolutely decimated with ice.
• 0:39
  I don't think I've ever seen ice that's as thick as what Nashville got.
• 0:44
  And uh there were hundreds of thousands just in Nashville without power, still people without power in Nashville, tens of thousands at least, and very cold temperatures.
• 0:59
  My brother who lives in Nashville said that the other night it was four degrees.
• 1:05
  They still are without power.
• 1:07
  It's been what since Saturday, Sunday, whatever day that storm hit.
• 1:14
  That's a long time to be without power with temperatures that cold, yeah.
• 1:19
  You can't heat your place.
• 1:22
  And uh not many people have generators.
• 1:26
  They they call this the storm of the century.
• 1:30
  And it's just devastating to see the amount of damage that the ice did out of everything, the ice is definitely the worst.
• 1:39
  The ice really negatively impacts areas, except that it looks beautiful.
• 1:46
  I will say that the pictures my brother sent, um, it's absolutely gorgeous, but the amount of devastation is on unbelievable, it's unreal.
• 1:58
  So he was telling me a story about lending his generator to somebody.
• 2:04
  He has a lot of built-in redundancies, and that's kind of the difference between people who grew up in the north and people who didn't, because we really get accustomed to these kinds of storms, and you prepare for just about every kind of scenario.
• 2:23
  Uh power goes up goes out, uh, not real often, but often enough that you know when the power does go out, it can be absolutely detrimental.
• 2:35
  And a lot of people have whole house generators, and those are expensive.
• 2:40
  They they clock in at about eight grand.
• 2:44
  Um do, but not a ton.
• 2:50
  But a lot of people do have generators up here, and that's just kind of a common practice.
• 2:56
  I have a couple neighbors who have them.
• 2:58
  I personally do not.
• 3:00
  Um, but I have many built-in redundancies where we've had the power go out at 1015 below zero for a whole day, and we were just fine.
• 3:14
  So uh, you know, you you figure things out when you experience this often enough, you figure things out, and uh so my brother's one of those.
• 3:25
  He he grew up in the north, he grew up in Pennsylvania, and he's if anything, over prepared, and he was able to lend a generator to a neighbor because he he just had all the stuff that he needed, and his house is staying even without power, they're staying at uh about 65 degrees, which is very livable, and uh actually fairly comfortable, but other people didn't make off so well, and millions of people were impacted by this massive storm.
• 4:02
  So I started digging a little bit, and lo and behold, a lot of these stories come from social media, not the news.
• 4:11
  The news is too busy.
• 4:13
  Uh pretty much all things ice right now, and I think that's gonna be the case for a long time.
• 4:20
  They just they're they're absolutely obsessed with ice, and uh the deportations, you know.
• 4:29
  I don't remember news cycles running like this just 24-7 when Obama uh President Obama deported how many millions, I mean millions of people.
• 4:42
  And I I honestly I don't remember, I can't recall one news event during his deportations.
• 4:53
  I just don't remember it.
• 4:56
  That's not to say that people didn't cover the news, but uh when they did, it was definitely in a positive light, but I don't remember any.
• 5:05
  I I do not remember one news story from when President Obama deported millions and millions of people.
• 5:16
  And by the way, split up families.
• 5:21
  He separated children from parents, and uh, you know, it's it's not easy.
• 5:28
  And I'm not criticizing President Obama, it's just it's it's not easy, it's complicated.
• 5:34
  But at any rate, that's dominating the news cycle.
• 5:37
  I mean, you can't get away from these stories about ice, you just can't.
• 5:44
  So I had to dig deep and look on social media, and I want to share some of these stories.
• 5:52
  Now, some of them did make the news, a very, very small percentage made the news.
• 5:57
  But I want to share some of these stories because uh it just shows how incredible people are.
• 6:02
  I I'm embarrassed that our media is just so terrible.
• 6:08
  Uh the mainstream media, this is the kind of stuff they need to be covering.
• 6:13
  This manufactur uh manufactured outrage that comes mostly from the left.
• 6:20
  Um it's so exhausting.
• 6:24
  And what a terrible way to live your life.
• 6:26
  And I actually feel bad for people that get caught into those traps because it it's it's just hard to live that way when you're constantly anxious and worried and angry.
• 6:42
  And and you fail to see that the good that's going on right in your neighborhood, and believe me, it's happening everywhere.
• 6:50
  Um I understand, I I get, you know, this last shooting in Minnesota.
• 6:57
  I don't think it was justified.
• 7:02
  I don't think he was 100% innocent, you know, getting in ice ice agents' faces with a camera, and you know, just it's not a good situation.
• 7:15
  Uh, but I you know, from what I can tell, it did not look like a justified shooting.
• 7:22
  So I understand, I understand people are upset.
• 7:26
  But they're gonna run this on the news for weeks and weeks and weeks until they find the next thing that that's gonna outrage Americans, and then they'll they'll just run that on loop for day after day after day.
• 7:42
  And it's just it's it's a shame that these stories get pushed to the shadows.
• 7:47
  So we're here to shine a light to bring that hidden lightness out into the open and to share these positive stories because the majority of Americans.
• 7:59
  This represents America.
• 8:01
  These positive stories represent who we are as a nation.
• 8:07
  So let me just run down through some of them, and I I mean, I have a list, I don't know, 30, 40 long at least.
• 8:15
  Uh so this is just a handful of them.
• 8:18
  All right, the snow angels of Pittsburgh.
• 8:22
  First of all, shout out to the berg.
• 8:25
  If any of Yensers are listening, um Pittsburgh is where it's at.
• 8:30
  I just spent time in Pittsburgh over the weekend, and uh just love the berg.
• 8:36
  So in Pittsburgh, residents on Blackberry Way worked together for two hours to clear their street.
• 8:46
  A whole bunch of residents came out.
• 8:49
  And I gotta tell you, snow removal is not easy, especially in the city when you have nowhere to put it.
• 8:57
  Uh it is not easy.
• 9:00
  Two hours is uh you could easily spend all day.
• 9:05
  You could shovel out your own place and easily spend six hours easily.
• 9:13
  So for this to happen in two hours, it shows you how many people actually came out.
• 9:20
  They prioritized access for nurses living on the block.
• 9:26
  All right, you with me.
• 9:34
  And I don't know if you've seen any of the pictures.
• 9:37
  I I took some in my own town, but when the plows, when the plows keep going by, when they're removing snow, we got about two feet.
• 9:47
  And when the plows are going by, they run out of room to push the snow, and it just keeps piling up higher and higher and higher.
• 9:56
  And when people park on the streets, and
• 10:00
  There are streets where I'm sorry, there's just no other parking.
• 10:06
  Which I can't fathom.
• 10:08
  I grew up in the country.
• 10:09
  I cannot fathom not having a big long driveway, a big open driveway, and plenty of places to push snow.
• 10:18
  But there are people who lots of people who don't have any driveways.
• 10:24
  They have to park in the street.
• 10:27
  Well, when the plows come by, they have to keep the lanes wide enough.
• 10:33
  So they push that snow literally on top of the cars.
• 10:38
  And that snow is heavy because it's been salted and it gets compacted.
• 10:45
  And one little shovel fool can easily be 50 plus pounds.
• 10:51
  I mean, this stuff is heavy.
• 10:54
  So to be able to remove that in short order, it's not an easy task, believe me.
• 11:01
  There are a bunch of people every year that have heart attacks who are out removing snow because it's very, very strenuous.
• 11:11
  So what they did is they dug cars out that belong to nurses.
• 11:18
  They found all the nurses who lived on the street.
• 11:20
  They prioritized them and they dug them out.
• 11:25
  In that same area in Pittsburgh, excuse me, a 16-year-old volunteer firefighter used his truck to free five cars that were stuck in deep snow.
• 11:38
  Another resident used plywood to help an Amazon driver get unstuck.
• 11:43
  I don't recommend that.
• 11:45
  Um first of all, it's just it doesn't provide traction.
• 11:50
  Plywood doesn't do any good, believe me.
• 11:54
  But also it becomes a projectile because when the tires spin on that, if it actually does grab a hold of it, it's gonna shoot that thing out and it be it becomes a missile.
• 12:05
  So plywood, not a good idea.
• 12:08
  Just don't use wood of any kind to try to get people unstuck.
• 12:13
  They ought to know better in Pittsburgh.
• 12:17
  But at any rate, that's my that's my little lecture on not using things at I just saw a video the other day.
• 12:25
  This lady was laughing, and she's like, yeah, I put a two by four under my tires to help get unstuck, thinking that that would get me traction, and then the camera pans, and there's literally like a four-foot-long two by four that was embedded in the side of her house because she was in reverse.
• 12:48
  She was trying to back up.
• 12:49
  Her tire grabbed a hold of it.
• 12:51
  It turned that thing into a missile.
• 12:55
  And imagine if somebody had been standing there, that would have killed somebody.
• 13:00
  So, yeah, don't use wood.
• 13:03
  That's just never a good idea.
• 13:05
  I I can't think of any scenario where that's a good idea.
• 13:10
  All right, here's another story.
• 13:11
  Generational care in Pennsylvania in sinking spring, Pennsylvania.
• 13:17
  After a resident snowblower failed, neighbor stepped in to help.
• 13:23
  There was a group of neighbors assisting a young couple who had just brought home their first baby a week prior.
• 13:32
  In Blair County, Pennsylvania, 83-year-old Jim Schoenfelder.
• 13:39
  He was helped by his neighbors who are cleaning multiple driveways, specifically targeting elderly residents.
• 13:48
  The dead end rescue on Fort Ross Drive.
• 13:52
  Two men were not asked for help.
• 13:57
  Yet they went around clearing snowblower paths for neighbors.
• 14:02
  Nobody asked them, they just stepped in and did it.
• 14:07
  Taking a third break from hand shoveling, a very heavy snow drift.
• 14:15
  It's a frozen driveway, heavy snow drift.
• 14:18
  We got some ice in in some parts of Pennsylvania.
• 14:23
  So they these guys walked over the street and helped her clear a path so that she could make it to her night shift nursing job.
• 14:31
  Kudos to these guys.
• 14:37
  Actually, Clifton, it's near Cincinnati.
• 14:41
  A woman and her son got stuck in their SUV trying to get up a steep hill.
• 14:46
  A neighbor with a big truck came, hooked to her, and got her out.
• 14:52
  Another neighbor helped direct them to reverse out to safety.
• 14:58
  Uh Manassas.
• 15:00
  Believe this is Manassas, Virginia.
• 15:04
  A resident shared a story of a good Samaritan, 60-year-old Diano Ventura.
• 15:14
  He spent his time shoveling, including clearing out a young girl's stuck car, helping an elderly neighbor.
• 15:21
  Now I gotta tell you, when you're shoveling snow at 60 years old, that that's that's tough.
• 15:28
  That is not easy.
• 15:38
  Um I promise you this, these people work around the clock.
• 15:43
  These are volunteers, too.
• 15:45
  They work around the clock, they work till early in the morning, take about an hour or two cat nap, and they go right back out and they do it all over again.
• 15:57
  And this is just this is normal.
• 16:00
  When you live in a snow area, you you understand there is no magic in removing snow.
• 16:05
  I think some people they go to sleep, they wake up, and all of a sudden the the roads are plowed and driveways are plowed, and they just think it it just happens.
• 16:15
  You know, the snow ferries come out at night and just make everything good for for the morning for when people have to go to school and work.
• 16:23
  Well, it doesn't work that way.
• 16:25
  It's it's very, very strenuous, it's time consuming.
• 16:30
  It if if you notice, you'll see a lot of people asking if anybody shovels or plows snow.
• 16:37
  They usually get crickets.
• 16:39
  Well, that's because it takes time, and these companies are absolutely buried in work.
• 16:46
  They can't take on new clients.
• 16:49
  So that's where the volunteers come in.
• 16:51
  And boy, have people stepped up across the nation.
• 16:55
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• 19:41
  Volunteers all across the nation have stepped in in a very big way.
• 19:47
  In a very big way, with a storm that just wreaked havoc on most of America.
• 19:54
  This was a huge storm.
• 19:56
  There's actually another one for this weekend.
• 19:58
  It's going to affect most of the American Americans.
• 20:00
  Mostly North and South Carolina.
• 20:03
  Some other parts of the coast coming up.
• 20:06
  It's a nor'eastern, which they call it a cyclone bomb.
• 20:13
  This thing is massive.
• 20:14
  It's gonna have very heavy snow.
• 20:18
  And essentially what it is is it's a it's a hurricane that's in the form of snow.
• 20:25
  So you get these gale force winds combined with snow, and it is they are nasty.
• 20:33
  You want to talk about damage, uh, down to power lines.
• 20:38
  You're gonna see trees that are down, roads that are closed for a very long time, just massive amounts of snow with nowhere to put the snow.
• 20:48
  You get into the cities, DC, I think it's gonna get hit.
• 20:52
  There's nowhere to put the snow in the city when you get two, three feet of snow.
• 20:59
  That basically equates to 15, 20 foot mountains of snow because they push it to the end of a parking lot, and they have these massive, massive mountains of snow, and it limits parking, and it it you know, they creep out into the roadways and block traffic, and they have to put the snow somewhere.
• 21:24
  So what a lot of these cities do is they'll they'll enact an emergency act, and they get the funding and eliminate a bunch of red tape, and they get a bunch of uh basically coal trucks, dump trucks, and they'll come in from Pennsylvania mostly, uh, New York, and they'll send these trucks down, and they'll they'll have big front-end loaders, and they take the snow, and then they they dump it in the river, and this happens every single storm, and I know because I've been asked to go before.
• 22:00
  I've never gone, but it pays really well, and I have a brother who went before, and he absolutely loved it.
• 22:10
  He just he said you don't get a lot of sleep, but um, and you're sleeping in your truck when you do, you just catch little naps.
• 22:19
  But pretty interesting stuff, and this is the stuff that people don't think about because we you know a lot of people just think the snow remove its itself, or they get frustrated with the roads, they're like, Oh, why aren't the plow drivers out plowing the roads?
• 22:36
  Well, they are it just takes a lot of time, and I know from plowing parking lots.
• 22:46
  I can plow half a parking lot, work on the other half, and by the time I'm done, the first half doesn't even look like I touched it, you know, and that's in a matter of an hour.
• 23:00
  So it's it's very hard to keep up with snow removal, and if you get winds involved, you got drifting snow, and it just doesn't matter how often you plow, it's gonna go right back to being snow covered, and it's it's it's really frustrating for a lot of people, and for other people, it's just really difficult.
• 23:25
  You know, elderly people can't go out, the elderly residents are extremely vulnerable.
• 23:32
  A lot of them get medication delivered to their house, they get their prescriptions delivered, and trust me, it's not the fault of the delivery drivers, but if they can't get access to the house, they don't deliver, they won't deliver, they can't deliver.
• 23:51
  So you have a central needs literally to keep people alive, and without snow removal, people do die.
• 24:01
  It happens every single winter season.
• 24:07
  You know, uh, and and snow removal, I can't overstate how important it is, how important of a service this is.
• 24:29
  But snow removal is extremely slow, it's painstakingly slow.
• 24:37
  It's not easy, and every single company gets very overwhelmed, and there are only so many people that you can, there are only so many customers that you can take on, especially if you're getting heavy snow and you have heavy wind.
• 24:55
  The math just doesn't math, and they're limited, they're absolutely limited.
• 25:03
  So we can criticize all day long and say, well, why didn't they just pick up the phone and call somebody?
• 25:08
  You don't think they thought of that?
• 25:11
  They do call people.
• 25:15
  I'll put my little plug in here, too.
• 25:18
  I get I gave the same plug to my kids.
• 25:20
  There is a massive shortage of plow drivers everywhere.
• 25:28
  So I told my kids when you're 16, you might want to buy an asset, buy a pickup truck.
• 25:38
  Get a, you know, it doesn't have to be anything nice or special.
• 25:42
  Just get a pickup truck and put a plow on it, and I guarantee you'll make all the money that you ever need, and you'll be able to volunteer.
• 25:53
  You know, if that's a route you want to go to, you can volunteer to plow people out.
• 25:57
  There are plenty of people doing that.
• 26:00
  It's just a good way to make some money and take care of your neighbors.
• 26:07
  So on and on, here we go.
• 26:09
  More stories in St.
• 26:10
  Charles County, Missouri.
• 26:12
  Two neighbors proactively used community Facebook pages to advertise their willingness to shovel driveways for free, specifically targeting elderly residents.
• 26:26
  I mean, the the stories can be replicated over and over and over again.
• 26:32
  Let's go to Kentucky.
• 26:35
  This is Oldham County in Kentucky.
• 26:41
  Teens started last year in 2025.
• 26:46
  They started plowing driveways for neighbors after they got a snowstorm.
• 26:51
  They've been doing it ever since.
• 26:55
  When inclement inclement weather hits Kentucky, neighbors often step up to help each other.
• 27:01
  This is WLKY.
• 27:05
  This is an article here.
• 27:08
  That's exactly what's happening in Oldham County, where a local group is spending long days clearing snow for people who need a hand, especially older residents.
• 27:18
  The effort started as an idea between Chuck Young and Friends after the 2025 snowstorm.
• 27:26
  Since then, the group has expanded its equipment and its reach.
• 27:35
  Young said.
• 27:37
  And anybody that we see out shoveling or anything and needs a hand, we try to help them if if they need it.
• 27:44
  I love this.
• 27:45
  And I love that this is a group of teenagers.
• 27:51
  I just absolutely love because I remember these days.
• 27:54
  I remember kids used to grab shovels.
• 27:58
  Back in my day, um, people used to grab shovels, kids would grab shovels and they would just go, they would go shovel people, and they would help.
• 28:09
  And what's incredibly fascinating to me, is that I said used to, but that's not exactly true.
• 28:21
  They still are doing it.
• 28:26
  Again, we hear people bark about the the young people.
• 28:29
  Well, the younger generation, they're just lazy and they're they don't know what it's like.
• 28:34
  And we used to go out, we used to do this, and we used to do that.
• 28:38
  Well, guess what?
• 28:39
  They're still doing it.
• 28:40
  We just don't hear about it.
• 28:44
  We don't hear about it because there's an endless barrage of negative stories on the news constantly.
• 28:54
  And that creates this space in your brain where your world view starts to get shifted.
• 29:01
  You get jaded after a while, and you're like, man, people are just people just suck.
• 29:07
  But the reality is kids have been shoveling driveways since shovels were invented, and they're still doing it.
• 29:18
  Listen to this.
• 29:20
  It's this is really cool.
• 29:21
  I want you to listen very listen very closely to what this group is doing.
• 29:26
  This year, the group added two new snowblowers to increase the number of homes they can reach.
• 29:36
  Now, I gotta tell you, snowblowers are the way to go.
• 29:41
  Shoveling versus snowblowers, there is zero comparison.
• 29:46
  It's it'll take you 15 minutes to to blow something that could take four hours.
• 29:54
  It's just there is absolutely no comparison.
• 29:59
  So this
• 30:00
  Group of teenagers bought two brand new snowblowers.
• 30:03
  You want to know what those things cost.
• 30:07
  On average, they're about a thousand dollars.
• 30:11
  So here you have two grand that these teens put into this.
• 30:16
  And people are thinking, well, that's that's just a return on investment.
• 30:21
  ROI.
• 30:22
  They're they're building their overhead.
• 30:26
  You know, they're building up their business.
• 30:28
  You want to know how much they charge to do these driveways.
• 30:32
  Exactly zero.
• 30:36
  Exactly zero.
• 30:38
  They bought these snowblowers on their own with their own money.
• 30:44
  So that they can increase the number of driveways that they volunteer.
• 30:51
  They volunteer their time to do.
• 30:53
  I love this.
• 30:55
  Absolutely love with everything that's inside of me.
• 30:59
  I love this story.
• 31:02
  They said we did a couple of um a couple last year with just shovels.
• 31:08
  And now this is what we got.
• 31:11
  Pointing to the snowblowers.
• 31:13
  And trying to grow as much as we can.
• 31:16
  In other words, we're tapping shoulders, we're buying equipment, we're getting more people involved, we're trying to grow as much as we can.
• 31:24
  Okay, well to whose benefit.
• 31:29
  Certainly not theirs.
• 31:31
  They're not charging a single penny for this.
• 31:36
  Absolutely incredible.
• 31:38
  Over the weekend, the group posted its phone number and the availability in neighborhood Facebook groups.
• 31:44
  Young said the response has been non-stop.
• 31:48
  With calls continuing to come in.
• 31:51
  I'm telling you, uh whether you volunteer or charge money, that's kind of irrelevant.
• 31:56
  That's just personal preference, whatever you whatever you decide.
• 31:59
  Uh my children and I, we we do it all 100% volunteer.
• 32:04
  Other people do it 100% volunt on a volunteer basis.
• 32:08
  Other people charge money.
• 32:09
  I perfectly fine.
• 32:13
  It's expensive.
• 32:14
  The equipment's expensive.
• 32:15
  I had a breakdown the other day.
• 32:17
  Um I didn't put a whole ton of money in, but sometimes those breakdowns are expensive.
• 32:25
  It's it takes money to do this stuff.
• 32:30
  Shovels break routinely.
• 32:33
  They wear out, they need replaced.
• 32:36
  It's not cheap.
• 32:38
  Gas.
• 32:40
  Can't even tell you what I spent in gas this month.
• 32:43
  It's a lot.
• 32:46
  You know, it's expensive.
• 32:47
  If people want to charge money for this, by all means, absolutely.
• 32:53
  But I can tell you the demand is there.
• 32:56
  There is a demand like you wouldn't believe.
• 33:00
  I mean, when when you get any kind of a snow event, people have to get out.
• 33:05
  Here's another thing.
• 33:08
  Fire hydrants.
• 33:11
  I see a lot of fire hydrants get buried.
• 33:13
  You know what I don't see.
• 33:16
  I don't see volunteers digging out fire hydrants, and I think I think a lot of people just don't think about it.
• 33:22
  Or they prioritize, which is fine.
• 33:24
  They prioritize the elderly, the nurses, essential workers.
• 33:32
  But this is just another area.
• 33:33
  It's it's another demand, it's another need.
• 33:35
  It's not a criticism.
• 33:36
  I'm just saying it's a need.
• 33:38
  Fire hydrants have to be dug out.
• 33:42
  They should be at least.
• 33:47
  And the number of, I just saw an article, the number of fires in my county, and this happens all over the place.
• 33:55
  It increased exponentially over the last month.
• 33:59
  You we get these cold snaps, and people get uh they get desperate.
• 34:04
  They buy a bunch of space heaters, uh, space heaters fall over.
• 34:10
  They have pets and they fall over.
• 34:12
  Uh, curtains catch on fire.
• 34:15
  Um, they get too close to to furniture, those sorts of things.
• 34:19
  This happens all the time in houses burn down.
• 34:23
  And the fire companies shouldn't be scrambling trying to figure out where the where the closest fire hydrant is.
• 34:31
  Should be very clear, it should be shoveled out, should be well marked.
• 34:37
  These are all services that there's just such a demand, such availability for this kind of stuff.
• 34:45
  You could make somebody could start a business literally just digging out fire hydrants.
• 34:52
  It could make a pretty good living doing that.
• 34:56
  You know, contract with with the city and say, hey, you know, I'm gonna dig out some fire hydrants.
• 35:05
  I'll do X number of fire hydrants, and where I'll do this radius, and here's here's what I charge.
• 35:13
  I will bet you that the city would find money for that.
• 35:20
  Or residents who have a fire hydrant, they would they would pay.
• 35:24
  But this is important.
• 35:26
  So these kids, these teens in Kentucky, they're putting their hours, they're putting their availability.
• 35:33
  Uh, they're being very transparent.
• 35:35
  They start at five in the morning and work well into the night.
• 35:40
  Lucas Young said many of the people they're helping are older and may not be able to stay fully clear their own driveways.
• 35:47
  A lot of these people that we're helping out, they're older, and they'll be out plowing.
• 35:53
  We'll come help them just.
• 35:57
  I love that.
• 35:58
  Just because a great group of kids.
• 36:06
  It is this not inspiring to you.
• 36:13
  Does this not give you hope?
• 36:15
  Does this not bring joy to your heart to hear these kinds of stories?
• 36:19
  And this is not a one-off.
• 36:23
  I mean, I literally have 40 plus stories queued here, and I'm only gonna get to a fraction of them.
• 36:30
  This is happening everywhere, all across America.
• 36:36
  These are people putting 16, 18-hour days in all volunteer.
• 36:44
  These are kids doing it.
• 36:48
  But you have adults doing it too.
• 36:51
  You have 60-year-old adults who are out shoveling snow for hours and hours, you know, 16-hour days.
• 36:59
  It's incredible.
• 37:01
  I I'd uh I love this nation, and anybody who says otherwise, well, go to Canada or go somewhere.
• 37:10
  It's so great.
• 37:11
  We're so blessed.
• 37:13
  We're coming up on another break here.
• 37:15
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• 37:20
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• 37:23
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• 37:34
  All you have to do is peel the curtains back, look for somebody struggling, and just go help them.
• 37:41
  Just go ask.
• 37:42
  Hey, is it okay if I help you?
• 37:44
  I promise you'll be blessed.
• 37:47
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• 39:24
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• 39:33
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• 39:37
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• 39:39
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• 39:56
  They really got hit hard with ice.
• 39:59
  And
• 40:00
  Uh the other kind of ice, the the cold kind of ice.
• 40:04
  Um, but this was a storm.
• 40:08
  This was a storm of the century.
• 40:12
  And boy, have people come to the aid of others.
• 40:17
  This is a story of the good Samaritan.
• 40:20
  Neighbor helping neighbor, young and old, picking up shovels, buying buying snowblowers at their own cost, just to volunteer and help their neighbors get essential services, or for essential workers for nurses to be able to get out and go to work.
• 40:43
  This is really heartwarming, and it's also really common.
• 40:49
  So I'm going to point to more stories here here in Pittsburgh.
• 40:55
  Uh, or should I say there in Pittsburgh?
• 41:00
  Um I'm not in Pittsburgh.
• 41:02
  I'm about an hour away.
• 41:04
  But in Pittsburgh, they have the Snow Angels program.
• 41:10
  And the Snow Angels, we actually have one that just started here in my own town.
• 41:15
  And my kids were the first to sign up and volunteer.
• 41:19
  I'm very, very proud of them.
• 41:21
  And they spent an entire day when the high was 10 degrees, it was blowing snow, it was it was just really difficult and challenging.
• 41:32
  We all got very tired, just being out in the elements.
• 41:36
  But my kids spent an entire day.
• 41:38
  They grabbed friends and cousins, and we opened up the driveways of eight elderly people.
• 41:47
  One woman told us that had we not shown up, her two appointments for the day would have been canceled.
• 41:53
  These were essential appointments, and she was, I'm telling you, she was absolutely snowed in.
• 42:01
  She had feet of snow.
• 42:05
  So somebody couldn't have gotten to her door if they if they tried.
• 42:09
  And she was worried about if she needed an ambulance, they would have no way to get her out.
• 42:16
  Um over the place.
• 42:20
  I mean, millions of people are in the same position.
• 42:25
  And that's why it's really important that volunteers go out because there aren't enough paid people.
• 42:32
  There just aren't.
• 42:33
  There's not even close.
• 42:36
  The number of snow removal companies, they pale in comparison to the need, to the demand.
• 42:44
  And that's where volunteers come in.
• 42:48
  So Pittsburgh has its own snow angel program.
• 42:51
  This is on their Pittsburgh.gov, Pittsburgh PA.gov website.
• 42:56
  I'll link to it in the show notes.
• 42:59
  And they have a little bit of a blurb about what the snow angel program is.
• 43:04
  If you're not familiar with them, I'll I'll share this.
• 43:07
  Uh helping our neighbors is so much fun.
• 43:12
  Snow covered sidewalks can be hazardous for everyone.
• 43:16
  The city of Pittsburgh's Snow Angels program pairs older residents and people with disabilities with nearby neighbors to assist with snow removal on their sidewalks and walkways.
• 43:28
  Along with fostering stronger community relationships and relieving some of the stress that comes from a heavy snowfall or freeze, snow angels make our sidewalks safer for those who are outside during winter weather, like postal workers, firefighters, police officers, and other neighbors.
• 43:48
  Community groups, coaches, faith-based organizations, and community leaders are all encouraged to sign up as snow angels to support your neighbors in need.
• 43:59
  All right, and then it talks about people who qualify, you have to be at least 62 years old, or be unable to perform snow removal due to physical mobility impairments.
• 44:13
  Uh applicants are not guaranteed assistance.
• 44:17
  So just because you sign up, you can't sue the city and say that nobody came and cleaned my place out because it's all volunteer based.
• 44:27
  We were afraid that in my town that we couldn't get to one of the places because it's a big long driveway.
• 44:34
  I I looked at it on the maps, and I did a satellite view, and I was like, there's just there's no way that's way too much driveway for us.
• 44:43
  But we decided to go out to go out anyway, and had we not had a snowblower, it never would have gotten done, but we got it done.
• 44:54
  The kids were like, you know what?
• 44:55
  And it was they were tired, it was the end of the day, and we did it anyway.
• 45:00
  But there's no guarantee.
• 45:03
  You know, with the with the snow angel programs, there's no guarantee that you're gonna get plowed or shoveled or whatever it is.
• 45:13
  Um you may not receive immediate help during a snowfall.
• 45:18
  That's another bullet point here.
• 45:20
  Good point.
• 45:22
  We didn't get out until the next day after the big storm here because we had our own digging out to do.
• 45:29
  Uh, you do not have to be home when a volunteer arrives to help.
• 45:34
  So it's saying the snow angels know what to do, they'll just come, they'll take care of it.
• 45:38
  Uh, they don't knock on doors, they just show up, they they do their thing, and they leave.
• 45:44
  And if the residents want to come out and talk with them, that's perfectly fine.
• 45:48
  But the snow angels won't knock doors, they they just they know the address, they know what to do, they just step in and do it.
• 45:57
  So it's a really really cool service.
• 46:00
  And if you live in a place that doesn't have a snow angel program, I would recommend starting one.
• 46:06
  Spearhead it and be the person who at least brings the that information to whoever you think would be best suited to start that program.
• 46:16
  In our town, it's the area agency on aging that uh they coordinate it.
• 46:22
  They have actually have a committee, and this is the first year that they've done it here in my town, which is incredible.
• 46:29
  Uh it's so exciting, and it's so cool to see this.
• 46:32
  I'm so excited that that this program is up and running.
• 46:37
  So if your town or city doesn't have one, spearhead it.
• 46:45
  Pull it up and do it.
• 46:48
  Um, let's see.
• 46:50
  Here, Baltimore.
• 46:51
  This one I thought was really cool.
• 46:53
  And I didn't even think about this, which is silly.
• 46:59
  But when I read this, I was like, oh, this makes sense.
• 47:04
  This is Baltimore Jewish Life.com.
• 47:08
  And the article is kindness in the cold inside Baltimore's snowstorm, tested effort.
• 47:18
  Uh, this is really cool.
• 47:20
  So, what it is is somebody who drives around.
• 47:23
  It's people, volunteers who drive, they're not afraid to hit the road.
• 47:27
  They have four-wheel drive trucks or whatever.
• 47:31
  And a lot of times when when you get big snowstorms like this, everything shuts shuts down.
• 47:37
  So our town was no exception.
• 47:40
  They actually pretty much commanded people to stay home.
• 47:46
  They strongly suggested.
• 47:49
  Like just stay off the roads, let the road crews do what they do, unless you're part of a snow removal crew or an essential worker.
• 47:58
  Please stay off the roads.
• 47:59
  Well, people actually listened.
• 48:02
  And I went out.
• 48:06
  I was out doing snow removal, and it looked like a ghost town.
• 48:10
  Literally, the only vehicles out on the road were tractors.
• 48:15
  They had big tractors with plows, front-end loaders, uh, pickup trucks with plows.
• 48:21
  You saw some of those out and about, but other than that, I mean, really, nothing.
• 48:27
  So here in Baltimore, there are people who drive around.
• 48:32
  It's there was an anonymous local driver who was out just navigating the roads, trying to help people who had no other option, transporting families to six sick relatives, ferrying health care workers, responding to urgent community needs.
• 48:56
  Raquel, uh, I think you say Messur, joined the vehicle to document what conditions were really like on Baltimore streets, offering a firsthand look at both the extraordinary acts of chesed taking place and the serious dangers of drivers that the drivers faced.
• 49:17
  Her goal was simple.
• 49:19
  Show the reality on the ground and urge people to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary.
• 49:26
  From checking on homebound patients to delivering essential assistance, the driver's quiet dedication never slowed despite ice, deep snow, and near white out conditions.
• 49:40
  So essentially what this is is uh it's an anonymous driver who just says, Well, things still need delivered.
• 49:48
  People still need essential items.
• 49:52
  People need food, people need medicine, sick people need to go to the hospital.
• 49:59
  And a lot.
• 50:00
  Of places, unfortunately, the ambulances can't get to.
• 50:05
  And that's where people who like when you're experienced driving in the snow, you know what you can and can't do.
• 50:13
  And uh we call it drift busting.
• 50:16
  When you you find a great big drift, and you actually uh basically plow your way through it with your vehicle.
• 50:24
  You just you get a bunch of speed up and you fly, and it's a lot of fun.
• 50:29
  I took the boys out drift busting the other night.
• 50:32
  Um it's a lot of fun, but it can be very dangerous if you don't know what you're doing, or you can wind up very, very stuck.
• 50:40
  So when people know what they're doing, and uh they can safely and confidently go out and drive around, it really helps people.
• 50:48
  I mean, a lot of these services are life-saving.
• 50:52
  So, excuse me, that's another area where we really need volunteers.
• 51:00
  And I would coordinate if it were me, and I had the time.
• 51:06
  I would coordinate with a local ambulance service and or a local hospital and say, can I be on standby?
• 51:18
  You know, if there's if there's a call, you guys need to get to a house, and you can't get to the house.
• 51:24
  Can I bring you?
• 51:27
  Can I help assist to bring life-saving medication or or services, whatever it is, uh, to people who otherwise can't get it.
• 51:40
  You know, there are so many areas for people to volunteer.
• 51:44
  It's it's ridiculous.
• 51:48
  And I love that in Baltimore, somebody thought of this.
• 51:51
  Like, how cool is that?
• 51:54
  And I would love to know how this all started.
• 51:57
  I like I can I can picture, like in my mind, I I have this whole narrative played out, and I have no idea if that's what it was like.
• 52:05
  But I know every time it storms, I'm one of the first people out.
• 52:10
  I just I love driving around.
• 52:13
  I love seeing a town that's that's like a ghost town, and it's just fun.
• 52:18
  I take my kids out, they love it.
• 52:22
  We love getting a good measure of how deep the snow actually is after a big storm before the plows get out.
• 52:30
  It's a lot of fun.
• 52:33
  And so I can imagine somebody driving around, just having a blast, and then thinking to themselves, you know what?
• 52:45
  I'm the only one out.
• 52:46
  I'm the only one driving around.
• 52:49
  And life still goes on, and people still have emergencies.
• 52:54
  Pregnant women still have to get to hospitals to birth their children.
• 53:02
  Sick people still have to make their way to the hospital.
• 53:09
  And this idea starts to percolate a little bit.
• 53:14
  And then he was like, you know what?
• 53:16
  Uh, I'm just gonna find people.
• 53:18
  I'm gonna find people who are struggling, and I'm gonna give them rides.
• 53:24
  That's so cool.
• 53:27
  So the article goes on.
• 53:28
  As inspiring as these acts of kindness were, the road conditions were extremely dangerous.
• 53:35
  Residents are strongly urged, probably saying this because they they they have to news outlet.
• 53:43
  Residents are strongly urged to stay off the streets unless travel is absolutely necessary, allowing emergency and essential vehicles to move safely and helping prevent avoidable accidents.
• 53:55
  It's actually a good idea.
• 53:56
  That's good advice.
• 53:59
  So when you're out and about, help people out.
• 54:02
  You know, if you're gonna take to the streets, help people volunteer.
• 54:09
  Oh, let's see.
• 54:10
  Here's another one.
• 54:11
  Snowbody volunteers to help clear Alexandria neighborhood uh neighbors, sidewalks.
• 54:18
  This must be Alexandria Virginia would be my guess.
• 54:26
  A team of volunteers in Alexandria have bundled up to shovel and treat their neighbors' walkways after this weekend's winter storm.
• 54:35
  For two decades, volunteer Alexandria's snowbody program.
• 54:41
  Here's another one.
• 54:42
  Some call it snow angels.
• 54:44
  This one is snow buddy.
• 54:46
  For two decades, for 20 years, the town's snow buddy program has provided snow removal assistance to people with disabilities, homebound residents and seniors who meet income eligibility requirements.
• 55:01
  The program, which typically serves 30 to 40 residents, is meeting increased needs in the city with 65 service requests from Alexandria residents so far this winter.
• 55:14
  And that's what that's what I'm talking about.
• 55:17
  See, this need is growing.
• 55:20
  The population in America is aging.
• 55:24
  We see this with the issue with Social Security, right?
• 55:29
  We're an aging nation.
• 55:32
  So these needs are only going to get bigger.
• 55:35
  The demand is going to be more.
• 55:40
  So we need volunteers.
• 55:42
  The program in Alexandria currently has 50 volunteers ready to help.
• 55:48
  Another seven are going through onboarding after volunteer Alexandria sent out a call for more volunteers last week in response to a high number of requests on the Duke Street corridor.
• 56:02
  They said we have enough volunteers for within the city, but we're always looking for more because we have we like to have some backup people.
• 56:15
  And not just snow removal.
• 56:16
  I mean, it's fill in the blank.
• 56:20
  There are all kinds of services that need to be provided to elderly people or people with disabilities.
• 56:28
  And it's just a massive, massive demand.
• 56:32
  But I love these stories because it shows what's really going on in America right now.
• 56:38
  And it's not the riots, it's not people taken to the streets and protesting and screaming and blowing whistles.
• 56:44
  It's ordinary people, young and old, taken to the streets and just checking on their neighbors and helping them.
• 56:50
  They're being good Samaritans.
• 56:54
  I love this with every ounce of everything inside of me.
• 56:57
  Um go out and find somebody to help.
• 57:00
  Be that hidden lightness, and if you don't have a program in your town, start one.
• 57:06
  You won't be disappointed.
• 57:08
  You can find more out about my show and get all the latest podcasts if you go to the menu navigation bar at AmericaOutloud.news under our shows or schedule.
• 57:16
  You'll be in the know.
• 57:17
  There is a hidden lightness that shines inside of all of us.
• 57:20
  When there's so much darkness that envelops the world, remember that it doesn't take much light to expose that darkness and to ultimately inspire other people.
• 57:28
  Join me in being a light.