Tuesday, March 17th, 2026, at 6:05 p.m. (CT), we received a request for help with an offroad recovery in Minnesota. The requester, Nolan Donaldson, submitted the following information: “Hi, I’m stuck in fairly deep snow north of 280th st by about 1000ft in one of the parking areas. The car is an undamaged AWD grey Subaru forester. The tires seem to be stuck in icy divots beneath the snow layer. My exact spot is the parking area just north of where 280th st bends down into 55th avenue. / I’m with the vehicle”
Our administrator, Al Fontan, contacted the requester and verified the contact information provided, GPS location, and current situation before sending the request to local volunteers. In this particular recovery, we contacted volunteers within a 70-mile radius.
From the group of volunteers we contacted, we had Gene Kittelson taking over the recovery. Marking himself as engaging, he immediately started to drive toward Nolan. Gene was around 100 miles away.
By 4:20 p.m. the recovery was completed. Gene shared a short video in our lobby we posted down below, where he interviewed Nolan.
Gene was amazing, he drove 2 hours to help a total stranger. His job is commendable, he even took the time to interview the requester. That was amazing! Thank you Gene.
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