As students from St. Ambrose University clear away the snow from dozens of seniors' homes in Davenport this week, they're not just helping the seniors OR the city's Volunteer Connection Snow Angel program which was slammed in the wake of this weekend's storm.
"We're supporting 21 families whose kids have been diagnosed with life-threatening conditions," SAU student A.J. Adam told News 8 Tuesday. "We did 30 houses before and today we'll hit 36."
Collecting donations as they go, the students have collected more than $1,100 to benefit the University of Iowa Children's Hospital through their ongoing Dance Marathon fundraiser.
"The longest one took us an hour and a half, I think," St. Ambrose sophomore Luke McClure added. "The snow drift had built up, there was a car we had to work around to shovel out..."
For local seniors, snowed in at first by the foot of snow Sunday, and then all the problems with blowing and drifting snow since, the students have been a very welcome sight.
"They're just so exuberant and want to help and the troops just kept coming which is excellent in this day and age to see young people helping out seniors is great," a grateful Paula Kany said.
And besides helping the seniors, the city and the hospital, the students said they're the ones getting the most out of their days spent in the whipping cold conditions.
"It's humbling almost when I go out, I talk to almost all the people we go to and it's amazing to see how thankful they are," Adam said.
"In my opinion, we're not doing that much for them-- it's just community service, but we're getting so much out of it," McClure added.
Angels indeed...