Fort Erie snowplow driver goes viral for helping two boys clear driveway

A security camera video posted to Facebook last month by Lori Peters shows a snowplow driver stopping to help two boys who were shovelling a driveway in Fort Erie on January 15.

The clip was reposted on YouTube by ViralHog, a U.S.-based entertainment and video licensing company, and has passed 107,000 views since it was uploaded on February 6.

The sudden attention has put a familiar winter moment in front of a much larger audience, with local and international viewers reacting to the kind gesture on a residential street.

The clip has since been reposted by news outlets outside Canada, including ABC News.

“I didn’t even know what had happened until…I went and checked back on the video, and sure enough, there it was,” said Peters.

Peters said her sons, Luke, 13, and Lincoln, 11, help keep the driveway clear because her husband has spinal stenosis.

Brenden Mullin, who identified himself as the plow driver in a Facebook comment, said he stopped because he saw the boys working and it reminded him of his own childhood.

“Loved seeing the boys out there shovelling away, couldn’t help myself to give them a hand…remembered when I was a kid shovelling away, and random plow driver passersby would help out with the end of a deep driveway,” said Mullin.

After driving past the boys who had cleared less than half their driveway, Mullin backed up his snowplow and cleared the rest of the driveway for them.

Peters responded by thanking Mullin for his simple act of kindness in assisting her sons.

Lincoln told Fort Erie Radio he did not understand why the plow returned at first.

“I thought it was just going to be a normal day. It just turned into a video, and then the video just went viral, and I did not expect any of that,” said Lincoln.

The response reflects what Peters has found since moving to Fort Erie from St. Catharines about five and a half years ago.

“It’s just small towns that people help each other and take care of each other, and Brenden really showed that in coming back and backing up and plowing out the driveway,” she said.

Peters spoke about recently making another post on Monday morning about a furnace problem, and on the same day, a resident who works for Enercare offered to stop by after work and take a look.

The video continues to gain an audience through online reposts, and Peters said she and her family see new comments and view totals as it circulates.

“I only found one offensive comment. It was, ‘Those people wave as lazily as their shovelling,’ but every other one was just positive.”

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