Volunteers, police help 99-year-old veteran get to church

By Chloe Godding

Click here for updates on this story

    SHAWNEE, Kansas (KMBC) — Shawnee, Kansas, resident Sally Keithley-McCulley just wanted to make it to church Wednesday, but her driveway was covered in snow. That’s when a few Good Samaritans stepped in to help.

Keithley-McCulley, a 99-year-old World War II combat veteran, attends church each week and didn’t want to miss it, but the deep snow piled on her long driveway meant she was blocked in.

So she called her friend Sean Winn, who makes documentary films honoring the lives of veterans, for help.

Winn reached out to Debra Shultz, chair of the Missouri Korean War Veterans Memorial, who was also ready to help, although she didn’t have a snow shovel. She visited the Cosentino’s Price Chopper at 119th Street and Metcalf Avenue and told store manager David Nuendorf the story, and he donated a shovel.

Winn and Shultz began the work, getting about half of the driveway cleared. But as anyone who’s been out there shoveling knows, it’s not an easy task. The two called the Shawnee, Kansas, Police Department, which sent officers Sarah Durham and Grant Howell to assist with shoveling.

And it didn’t stop there; Jack Meylan, a Baker University student who was out clearing driveways with a snowblower as a way to earn money, saw police at the driveway and volunteered to help clear the snow. Meylan didn’t want any money for the job.

Meylan’s snowblower helped clear the rest of the driveway in minutes, giving Keithley-McCulley a way to make it to church.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.