The news these days is often depressing at worst and frustrating at best. It’s easy to let it get us down. Never fear… The News Blender has you covered. Once a week we feature Something Good and, in return, all you have to do is tell us something good that has happened to you this week, something you are thankful for, a joke, a cute animal story, an inspiring tale of heroics, a Random Act of Kindness… SOMETHING good.
Today’s something good is a snow day.
Last week, when snow blanketed Pennsylvania and school was cancelled, Coach Brian Delallo tweeted out an assignment to his team.
Bethel Park residents were surprised Monday morning when about 40 Bethel Park football players showed up and began digging them out.
Pearl Moss is 74 years old and recovering from shoulder surgery. With no family nearby, she had no idea how she was going to manage with 6 inches of snow. When a couple boys from the football team knocked on her door and offered to shovel her driveway – at no cost – she was delighted and thankful. She told The Washington Post that without the boys helping, she would have been stuck in her house for days.
Greg Hardy was just getting ready to head outside and start shoveling when his wife told him he didn’t need to. He looked outside and saw five young men with shovels and snowblowers. Greg tried to pay them, but they wouldn’t take a dime. “It made my day,” he told WGRZ. “It brought tears to my eyes, and I just feel like it’s a really great thing for them to do on their day off.”
“I grabbed some shovels and drove over to pick up Aidan, and we spent the next eight hours shoveling driveways and sidewalks for people that we knew couldn’t do it for themselves,” said 16-year-old David Shelpman, an offensive and defensive lineman.” He and Aidan Campbell shoveled out six houses, skipping lunch in the process, before quitting. “It made me feel like I was part of something bigger than myself,” David said.
Braedon Del Duca, Colton Pfeuffer and his brother, Tanner Pfeuffer, shoveled five houses that day. “I like helping other people, and I love the snow, so it was fun to get a workout outside,” said 16-year-old Braedon. “It was cool to see how happy people were when we showed up.”
Coach Delallo pitched in with the team as well, mentioning that his back was feeling it afterwards. All told, the football team shoveled 100 houses that day, and planned to return to do the houses they couldn’t get done on Monday.
Delallo was quick to point out that the team going out into the community and helping their neighbors on snow days is a tradition at Bethel Park. Started by former head coach Jeff Metheny in 2002, it is a tradition Delallo, former assistant coach under Metheny, has kept going. He says it’s not just Bethel Park that does this kind of service project. Kids across Pennsylvania help shovel out their neighborhoods, at no cost, because it’s the right thing to do.
Delallo said, “I think it says more about the kids and coaches involved in our game and gets kids out to help our community, that’s what it’s all about.”
We so often hear about how terrible the younger generations are and when we do, we should think about these kinds of stories. The kids are definitely something good!
Now it’s your turn… Tell me something good!
