Winter Rescue

This event happened in the late 1970s or early 1980s.  The staff person got a call one evening around 5:00 p. m. from the AOD (Administrator of the Day) to gather all of the blankets he could find and a truck from the garage would come to pick him up.  An aide staff member from Glover (J. R. W.) and a recreation worker (C. U.)  were in a van stuck on the mountain above Laurelton.  It was later learned that after a recreation class at Recreation Hall, the aide from Glover took a van loaded with residents and decided to go out the back gate and drive up the mountain.  It got stuck over a mile up the road and he had to walk back for help.  

The truck with a snow plow stopped for the staff person and another truck followed them  plowing up the mountain. The driver and the staff person could not believe that anyone would take a van load of residents up that road.  They got to the van but could not get it out.  They then wrapped the residents in the blankets and then loaded them on to the backs of the trucks.  They had to back down to an intersection to turn around.  

The Recreation staff person was riding in the back with our narrator and he could tell that she was really pissed off at the aide.  He knew the Recreation staff member very well and she would always be joking and giving him a rough time.  So he told her to get ready because Channel 16 was waiting to interview her when they got back. She started to panic and was worried.  He finally told her that he was joking and she started hitting him and threatened to kill him.

All of the residents were safe and happy to be returned to the living area.  After the investigation was over, the aide either left on his own or was terminated.  It is not known which.    

(That story could have turned out sadly and quite differently.)

By SOX