Snow piled up over a foot, classes were remote, and temperatures were in the single digits at best last week, but four students set out with snow shovels to help their peers.
While the campus parking lots had been plowed, the cars already parked were blocked in by the cleared snow. On Jan. 27, the largest parking lot connecting Firestine Hall and the Thomas Library was full of these trapped cars.
Mellie Derry, on behalf of the Office of Residence Life, said in an email, "Our Facilities staff is working tirelessly to clear the roadways, parking lots, and sidewalks and are unable to help shovel out personal cars." She went on to explain that Student Development had a limited number of snow shovels available as rentals to students.
Before the email was sent out, four male freshmen had already begun to dig out their vehicles, as well also those of their friends or whomever else asked for help.
Dylon Searson seemed to take the lead and delegated tasks to his friends. He explained that one of guys helping, Aaron Turner, is a part of the fraternity Beta Theta Phi, which supplied the shovels. All four are a part of the Wittenberg football team.
While two of them shoveled snow on one side of the lot, the remaining two helped jumpstart a car on the other side. When asked why they decided to brave the weather and help others, Searson responded that they simply "had nothing better to do." As a way to combat boredom, they not only shoveled snow, but went a step further and helped their fellow students.
