Many of us can complain about how harsh this winter weather has been. What with the way below zero temperatures and feet of snow, it hasn’t been easy to go to work, school, or anywhere really.

While these extreme weather conditions have made it hard for even perfectly healthy humans like us, just imagine how much harder life must be if you’re not in tip top health.

Natalie Blair lives in New Jersey, and she depends on daily dialysis treatments, which means it’s a life or death situation for her to be able to leave her house. This winter weather, and particularly the snow falling on her driveway, have put her life at risk.

Thankfully, Blair has amazing neighbors. Brian Lanigan is an EMT, and he has shoveled Blair’s driveway during snow storms to make sure that she is able to safely leave her home. However, when the weather forecast called for another snowstorm, Brian knew that he wouldn’t be able to help her out since he would be at work.

Thankfully, Brian has an amazing little brother, Patrick Lanigan. Patrick is a senior at Parsippany High School. He’s known for helping out his community. He’s a “peer buddy” at school, which means that he acts as a role model for kids at his school who are on the autism spectrum. He’s also actively involved at his church.

Patrick knew it was up to him to make sure Blair’s driveway was free of snow. He enlisted the help of some of his fellow seniors. Four of his friends volunteered to spend the night at Patrick’s house so that they could wake up at 4:30am and work together to shovel the snow off of Blair’s driveway.

Do you remember what it was like to be a teenager? We remember finding it really hard to wake up early in the morning. Volunteering to wake up at 4:30am to do the hard work of shoveling a driveway is really a big deal.

The boys hoped that school would be canceled that day, but it wasn’t. However, they did have a 2-hour delay which allowed them to get a little more sleep before headed off to school.

Peter Lanigan, Patrick’s proud dad, tweeted a couple pictures of the boys with the text, “Snow Angels disguised as PHS Srs, Justin, Pat, Chris, Tyler & Amon got up super early 4:30 (really never slept) to shovel a driveway for a neighbor who needed to get to dialysis.”

Many people have commented on the tweet saying things like, “This is a totally heroic action!  Big props to you this crew!! Great work, guys” and “This is what is called COMMUNITY. Awesome example, guys.”

Awesome example, indeed. What’s an awesome example of community that you’ve seen in your hometown?

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