An Okotoks couple spent the winter waking up some mornings and having a spontaneous – and quiet – snowball fight in the wee hours while helping the community.
“I enjoy the snow,” said Spencer Collins. “I am a kid at heart as is my wife. Sometimes we will throw a snowball at one another – just as a bit of fun when the snow is wet enough to do so.
“You don’t want to do that when the snow is dry – it’s like throwing flour or sugar.”
The impromptu snowball comes during a break for Spencer and Janis Collins while shovelling snow for those who can't. The Collins are members of the Town of Okotoks’ Snow Angels team.
Okotoks is celebrating National Volunteer Week April 19-25 and the Snow Angels are just one of the many volunteer programs co-ordinated through the town.
To be a Snow Angel takes precision and the help of a reliable weather forecast.
“As soon as it snows we are out there shovelling,” said Spencer. “Usually, we are out there about 5, 5:30 in the morning. We know what is happening the day before. It’s just to make sure that the people we are shovelling for, they have access and can leave home safely.”
The Collins have a pair of clients in the Crystal Ridge area. The clients are retired senior citizens. They also do shovelling on their own for members of their church.
Spencer said being in their mid 50s, both he and Janis are fairly young, so for them it's also about getting up in the morning, getting some fresh air and keeping healthy while lending a helping hand
“It takes about 20 minutes to half an hour depending on the amount of snow we get,” Spencer said. “It’s a bit of exercise, some fresh air."
It’s a team effort, with the strategy of Holy Trinity Academy Knights football coach Matt Hassett preparing for a high school provincial final.
“We do each drive together – we have our own system of doing it,” Spencer said. “I have a double-shovel, and my wife uses a metal-scrapper shovel.
“I push the snow to the side and then my wife throws it over the snowbank to clear the edges up.”
Janis will also go back and scrape off anything that has been compacted.
So who has the tougher task?
“Probably she does,” Spencer said with a laugh. “But she enjoys it – she likes the workout.”
However, chivalry is not dead.
If it's is one of those heavy wet snows – say, like in April – Spencer steps into assist with getting the white stuff over the snowbank.
The more things change in life, the more they stay the same.
Spencer grew up in England, north of York – an area that gets plenty of snow.
“Our weather was like Alberta – minus the chinooks,” Spencer said. “Where I lived it would often get blocked off from the main town 10 miles away for a day or two because the snow drifted.
“As a child my dad and I would go and help the elderly neighbours we had, I loved it.”
Janis grew up in Toronto, so enough said about her experience with snow.
Elisabeth, 88, lives in Okotoks and is a client of the Snow Angels program (her walks are not shovelled by the Collins).
“I don’t have to worry when it snows: ‘How do I get the snow off my sidewalk? Do I have to hire someone?”’ said Elisabeth, who did not want her last name used.
She has a disability and was referred to the Snow Angels program through home-care nurses.
And even though the snow may be easing off for spring, the angelic help continues.
Elisabeth recently received a note from her Snow Angels stating that if she needed help with groceries or any assistance during this COVID-19 event that they would willingly lend a hand.
“It definitely gives me peace of mind,” Elizabeth said.
For more information about volunteering opportunities in Okotoks and the area go to https://www.volunteerconnector.org/page-1/
