The government and schools were closed, day-drinking specials abounded all around town, and there was a snowball fight in Dupont Circle, per usual. Yesterday was a bona fide snow day in D.C.
After a powerful nor’easter blanketed the city with the biggest snowfall we’ve seen this winter—with as much as 12 inches recorded in parts of the city—many District denizens spent their day off either relaxing at home, or partaking in snow-related activities around town. But not Shelley Sloan—a U Street Corridor resident who uses a wheelchair. She spent the day worrying that, if she needed to call 911 for a medical emergency, would they be able to get her out of her house?
“I was worrying that, if something happens with all this snow, there’s absolutely no way they’re going to get me out of this house,” Sloan said today. “I looked out and saw all this snow and thought ‘OK, keep breathing! Keep breathing!'” Sloan, an IT professional who works near Dulles Airport, was one of 214 seniors or citizens with disabilities whose homes were visited by volunteers of Serve DC’s Citizen Snow team—residents who volunteer to shovel the sidewalks and steps for those who are unable to do it themselves.
Under D.C. law, it’s required that property owners keep their sidewalks, and other public areas around their property, clear of snow within eight hours of daylight after the snow stops. But since some residents are unable to do that for themselves, Serve DC—part of the Mayor’s Office on Volunteerism—established the Citizen Snow Team to help do that around the District.
Michael Leff, a New York native who now lives near the U Street corridor, came to Sloan’s house to shovel her icy walkway today as part of the Citizen Snow Team. Like Sloan, he heard about the Citizen Snow Team’s efforts from local news stations and decided he wanted to help out. “I grew up in New York City, so we always had to shovel snow in front of our house,” he said.
In the past two days, the Citizen Snow Team deployed 174 volunteers to 214 seniors’ homes, according to Clarence Fluker, Communications and Special Initiatives Director for Serve DC. But while more than 150 volunteers stepped up to help shovel sidewalks and walkways, Fluker says there was still a high demand for volunteers in Wards 4 and 7, particularly.
For Sloan, this was the first time a volunteer from the Citizen Snow Team visited her house. Sloan says she usually has a nurse come by to help her out, but after an incident during the snow storm last month, her regular nurse is wary of traveling during bad weather. “She came up U and 13th Street, and she was crossing 13th Street and there’s a bus pulled over there and she actually fell and slipped underneath the bus,” Sloan says. “Obviously, she has some issues with the snow. She’s a little paranoid about it now.”
As for getting help from her neighbors, she says they’ve all moved away since gentrification began transforming the neighborhood. “This is a very transient neighborhood,” Sloan says. “All of my old neighbors have moved away, and since I don’t get out of the house much, I don’t know any of my new neighbors.” Sloan says that most of the people she knows in the area live out in Virginia, too far away to help her out.
However, with Serve DC’s Citizen Snow Team, she says that she feels a lot more comfortable about her situation during snow storms. “Just to have that peace of mind, knowing that, if you need to get out, you can get out, it makes it easier for me to sleep at night,” she says.
For Leff, who lives only a few blocks away from Sloan, he says he enjoys the chance to shovel snow, something that he doesn’t get to do as he lives in a condo. But for Sloan, the gesture is much bigger. “I know it seems small to you,” she tells Leff, “but it’s a huge deal for me.”
