NEGAUNEE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WJMN) – After mother nature does, what she does best in the Upper Peninsula in the winter, a good amount of snow was left for Yoopers to deal with. But, that’s not easy for some.
“January 19th we were sent out to do a well-being check on an elderly female that had been snowed into her house,” said Tpr. Mack Schlicht, K9 Handler, Michigan State Police Negaunee Post. “Nobody had heard from her for about three weeks. So we were kind of concerned about what we would find when we got there.”
Thankfully, she was okay but had a job she couldn’t do on her own.
“In order to get down to her house, we had to go through deep snow to get down to her house,” said Tpr. Schlicht. “It was probably about 75 yards from the roadway.”
Tpr. Schlicht knew he couldn’t just leave her like that, so he rallied the troops.
“Recognizing that we got some good people here at the post, we were able to put out and email asking for some assistance,” said Tpr. Schlicht.
The call was answered.
“Someone at the post needed help and someone in the public needed help and so we all jumped in without a second thought,” said Tpr. Zachary Kiscadden.
“I guess the first thought was, ‘How can I help?,’ said Tpr. Trevor Bray. “And I guess like the email is pretty self explanatory. You have to shovel so you can shovel to help.”
“That was Trooper Mack Schlicht,” said Tpr: Kody Carlson. “He’s always been someone I’ve looked up to at the post. He’s got a lot of experience. It was, I felt a good deed. I was already working that day so I let him know that we’d be there for 9 a.m. when we were going to be starting. Went to headquarters and got an enclosed trailer and came here to get a snowblower cause he informed us there was going to be about three feet of snow, which to shovel was going to take a lot of time and then we stopped and got gas in the gas cans and went out there to help them.”
Reporter: With how much snow there was, it was actually trickier to use the snowblower, so the majority of it was shoveling.
“We were out there for about five hours over two different days so five hours each day roughly and from what I was told, she was very grateful,” said Tpr. Kiscadden.
Photos courtesy of Lt. Mark Giannunzio
Whether it’s responding to an emergency or picking up the shovel to help a neighbor in need, no matter the call, these troopers say they are here to serve their community.
“So I think, everyone that got into this job, did it to help people,” said Tpr. Bray. “And helping people is different depending on the day and on the person. Sometimes it might be pulling over a speeder, but sometimes it’s shoveling out somebody’s driveway that needs help and access to other resources.”
“We’re public servants,” said Tpr. Kiscadden. “We do everything so part of that’s going to be traffic enforcement, part of that is going to be criminal prevention and other things like this where people just need help, we’re out to help.”
“When we went out there, we don’t go out there and do it for the publicity of it,” said Tpr. Carlson. “We just went out because part of our job is to help others. I’m from Marquette County so this is my home community. So it’s just a way of giving back. It’s just part of what we want to do to help others.”
