A Few Good Men, a volunteer club that helps local households and organizations with manual labor, will lend a hand to locals through its snow removal initiative and its new snow plow truck.
“When it snows, it snows, and it has to be removed,” senior Tyler Wilke said. “There are a lot of people in the community who physically can’t do it or if they were to pay a contractor to do it, they would have to choose between food or heat.”
Thus, A Few Good Men provides snow removal and salt to the community.
“A Few Good Men’s motto is ‘See the need. Meet the need,’ so that’s what we’re doing,” Wilke said.
This year, however, the group is adjusting the structure of the program so that there will be three teams each day assigned in case of snowfall.
“Students can sign up to work on a snow crew which will only go out when it snows,” senior Chief Operations Officer Thomas King said. “Thus, there is minimal time commitment but a lot of excitement for anyone who volunteers for a snow crew.”
The club wanted to purchase a truck with a snow plow, but did not have the funds, so the group prayed for a truck.
“[Wilke] got in touch and wanted to help out,” sophomore Executive Director Jacob Thackston said. “He said, ‘I’ll buy one,’ and he did.”
According to Wilke, the opportunity “fell out of the sky.”
He found a pickup truck with a snow plow on Craig’s list.
“Mom’s always said, ‘If you want to get something done, do it yourself,’” Wilke said. “I really think there’s a need in the community. We’d been looking to buy one through A Few Good Men, but just didn’t have the funding.”
Wilke brought the truck to Michigan from his home in Illinois upon return from Thanksgiving break.
“Instead of maybe getting one or two houses shoveled out in a snowstorm, we can hit 10 or 12,” Wilke said. “We live here eight months out of the year; this is our community too. Especially at Hillsdale, it’s not the government’s job to take care of these people, it’s our job.”
Students who are interested in the snow removal and salt initiative should contact King at tking@hillsdale.edu for more information.
“Even though we have a plow truck, we still have to do the sidewalks and the stoops,” Wilke said. “Many hands make light work.”
Looking toward the summer, while many students tend to return home during that time, the club hopes to start a crew that is available to continue helping the community throughout these months.
A Few Good Men is the largest active member GOAL Program at Hillsdale. Students volunteer in crews to help local families and organizations make improvements to their building, such as painting, repairing appliances, and chopping wood to heat homes.
“We’ve completed close to 40 projects thus far,” Chief Operations Officer Thomas King said. “We’re definitely very busy, and we currently have a waiting list of over two weeks.”
The money they raised at their annual pancake breakfast will go towards the supplies for the projects the club’s 11 crews do every week as well as to help purchase a furnace for the Hillsdale Youth Center and temporarily fix their roof.
“I’ve seen firsthand what they’ve done, and I think these really unique opportunities need to be continued,” freshman Dustin Pletan said. “It goes beyond the academics into a community of students, and there’s a community around us too.”
“There’s a lot of needs in Hillsdale, and I think I’m doing a small part to help them,” sophomore crew leader James O’Rourke said. “Most of the houses need a lot of odd jobs done. For this one lady we picked up walnuts because she was old and can’t pick them up.”
A small silent auction was also held at the breakfast with a Checkers Record gift basket, stockings with candy canes, and even one of President Larry Arnn’s own ties, which sold for $70.
Sophomore Executive Director Jacob Thackston shared his own personal experience with the organization from his first crew’s job, painting a house pink, to, more recently, transporting a literal ton of cheese from a trailer into a Kiwanis Club member’s basement for a fundraiser.
Thackston told a story of a local family who only have a wood burning stove to heat their home.
“This winter is going to be the worst Michigan winter ever, and when we came to them, they had no wood, no way to heat their house,” Thackston said.
Another house was threatened with eviction because of the neglected exterior of the home.
“We wanted to help clean up their house, get it in good shape,” Thackston said. “We have made an impact in this community. Why are we here? Why do we serve? I think first of all, it is an answer of love.”
