To the Editor:

On Friday, July 19, 2013 my family and I went to pick up our 11-year-old daughter who was at camp.

The weather was not the best, it was raining and the wind was blowing fairly hard. In route to the campsite, my 15-year-old daughter asks to stop for ice cream, because she was craving ice cream.

I felt the ice cream crave also and had just passed an ice cream stand and decided to turn around and get some ice cream. Afterwards we continued to travel in route to pick up our younger daughter.

The rain continued pouring down and the wind increased to a level that was starting to knock down branches.

Then bigger trees started to come down from increased winds and fell into the streets. We had to shuck and jive through many of the obstacles blocking our way to pick her up. It almost felt like the twilight zone because the sky was getting darker by the minute, the rain was getting heavier, and the wind was picking up, gusting at times where you could see the trees bend to almost 90 degrees.

Then it happened, a few minutes earlier, a tree fell on the road. We were on Owlshead Road. It was pouring out and with forestry on both sides of the road there was no way to pass.

I got out of my vehicle to assess the situation to see if it was possible to go around the tree that fell on the highway.

No way! The tree had to be moved.

With anxious parents either arriving or leaving camp, something had to be done.

I started to pull on the tree trunk thinking I could slide it to one side and we could all pass. That wasn't happening.

The tree was too big and too heavy to even budge. What now to do? Also, what was happening was the traffic was starting to back up in both directions.

Then a miracle happened...people were getting out of their vehicles in the pouring rain and hellacious winds to help out. First there was two of us, then four of us, and then pretty soon there was about seven or eight of us.

The tree began to move and in the pouring rain and treacherous winds a group of strangers got together with two common goals, to move the tree out of the way and to pick up their children at camp and/or go home.

Some parents had already; picked up their children and were on their way out.

The tree was moved to one side of the road and then I directed traffic for a couple of minutes to make sure everyone passed safely.

We finally arrived at the campsite and picked up our younger daughter and returned home. Thinking back on the incident, had it not been for my older daughter asking for ice cream, that tree may have fallen on top of our vehicle. One never knows.

Out of all this, the moral of this story for me is, when your kid wants ice cream, don't hesitate to get it for them, it just might save your life!

Bobby Domena, Waddington