Good samaritan clears fallen trees for free

POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI) - It seems like people have been overwhelmed trying to dig out from all the snow.

Some people are still cleaning up damage, and with all the bad, you can always find that ray of sunshine. People are going out of their way to show kindness to others. 

We talked to one good neighbor in Pocatello who saw the need and jumped in. 

"I woke up, and we didn't have power. And I looked out the window, and my neighbor had a tree laying on his house," Matt Hansen said. "And I thought, 'you know, I can go help with that. I have experience with saws.' So I went over, knocked on the door, woke him up and I cut the tree for him, and it got me thinking there's got to be more people that are worried about this exact situation."

After Hansen helped his neighbor get his tree taken care of, then he decided he wanted to do more. So, he posted a message in a Facebook group, and the calls started coming in.

"A lot of people reached out, and I was able to go out in the community, and I got to help some folks that might not have gotten help otherwise," he said.

He says by serving others, he was really the one that got the blessings.

"I think I was actually the selfish one in all this," he said. "I think I got more from it than anyone else did."

So far, he's helped about 15 people clear the mess off their property. He and his wife finally got to their own backyard, but they say they still have lots of people they're going to help.

"In doing this, I kind of thought, you know, maybe people will see it and potentially go out and these small acts of kindness have a bit of a ripple effect," he said.

And he hopes this message of kindness keeps branching out.

"It's a simple act. Just do something small. It doesn't cost money, and you never know what it can lead to," Hansen said.

It is so great to see the community reaching out to help each other, and it seems like every time you go out of your way to help people, good things come back to you.