Standing on the snowless streets of St. John’s, one local artist — who rallied the troops, not wearing camo, to shovel out cars, driveways and homes during Snowmageddon — is reflecting on the record-breaking snowstorm and how it brought a community together.

Artistic director, producer and actor Ruth Lawrence started the Snow Angels, a group that went around the community shovelling out those who needed it, as some were trapped inside for days.

Lawrence went for a walk on the night of January 17th, and, looking around the city, she knew she needed to help but couldn’t do it alone.

Looking back almost a year to the day, she says there really was a sense of community knowing everyone had to pull together.

Lawrence says every day, a bunch of people would show up with little shovels and dig. As citizens, they had to grab whatever instruments they had in their homes and get out to help — for some that instrument was a kettle.

She adds that she was inspired by the fact that as they focused on shovelling, others were starting food drives and food delivery services, while others were knocking on doors to make sure the people inside were okay.

However, Lawrence does note that it did shed a light on the high number of people in the community who need that type of help, and a lot of places weren’t doing a great job at serving their own.

Snowmageddon changed the mindset of many.

If there’s something to take away from it, she says it’s that everyone had a chance to get in touch with humanity. It was a good test for what was coming down the pipe.

Lawrence says going into what would become a pandemic year, Snowmageddon really affected the metro region. She says people took a lot of those lessons into the pandemic while realizing that we had to take care of each other.

The Snow Angels founder says she’s already receiving inquiries about the Snow Angels for this winter with people ready to help — and assures that if and when needed, they will be ready to go, shovels in hand.