While most kids were out sledding, having snowball fights, or hunkered down indoors with video games, two West Shore teens decided to do some good deeds, and shovel over 50 bus stops.
On Tuesday, 14 year old Alex Meikle, and his friend, who wished to remain nameless, were shovelling snow from a neighbours driveway, when they saw someone struggling to get off the bus.
"We saw an elderly man struggling to get off the bus because of the high snow bank caused by the snowploughs. So we helped him off the bus and we shovelled just that stop. Then we went to the stop across the street, shovelled that one, and as we were in the middle of shovelling, another bus came and more people were struggling to get off. So we said 'Hey, why haven't we seen any municipality workers clearing them? Why haven't we seen any Victoria contracting? Why haven't anybody doing anything?' So we decided to take the initiative."
Alex says they decided to bus around the West Shore, clearing 54 bus stops that day. He says at about every second stop, they would be stopped by someone who would thank them.
"We had an elderly lady come up behind me, and scare me quite a bit, she came up behind me and gave me a hug. I was the reason she was able to go outside. She had to get groceries, she ran out of food on Monday. She says the busses give her freedom, and she was only able to get out and get onto the bus because of me. And that definitely brought some emotion and motivation to me and my friend, so we kept going."
He says they've also received a lot of support and well wishes on social media. His tweet was viewed by 93,000 people in less than 24 hours, and he says over 35 people have reached out to him on Twitter and Instagram.
He says BC Transit also was very appreciative, and they reached out to Meikle and are providing him and his friend free 3-month bus passes.