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Store, residents aid stranded skiers
TI Staff Report
A Christmas skiing trip usually brings feelings of joy and excitement.
But for one church group, a three-day ski trip turned into an eight-day
ordeal.
On Christmas night at 10 p.m., 46 people - youth, teens and adults from
St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton Catholic Church in Keller, Texas, a suburb of
Fort Worth - boarded a chartered bus with visions of moguls and powder
in their heads. The church's annual trip to Crested Butte, Colo., was
officially underway. Trip coordinator Larry West said "they started the
trip with a talk on journeys and ended up learning about journeys" -
life journeys.
The group made it to its destination by 2 p.m. Tuesday, skiing and
snowboarding to their hearts content. The bus driver staying abreast of
the weather forecast had encouraged West to round up the group and leave
so they could stay ahead of the weather.
The forecast called for snow, but no one suspected four feet of snow
would fall on southeast Colorado.
One parent on the trip, Jim Karl, said that driving south on Interstate
25 became perilous. He said they looked out of the window of the bus and
"could not see the road" because of the blowing snow. The bus pulled
over and the skiers slept on the bus Friday night. They were stuck on
the bus for six hours. Emergency workers were ordering vehicles off the
road at exit 11 at Trinidad, the Wal-Mart exit.
The coordinators and chaperones began trekking the cold, hungry skiers
into Wal-Mart. The group was down to three bottles of water. The snow
continued to fall.
"Wal-Mart opened their doors to us," said Karl.
Wal-Mart co-manager Donnie Dean said that as snow was accumulating and
more and more motorists were unable to proceed, he contacted his
district manager to apprise him of the situation. He prepared for I-25
to be shut down.
Dean said that normally the store would be shut down under the
circumstances, but his team of assistant managers - Bennie Gallegos,
Greg Files and Daniel Jackson, and two sales associates, Pat Petro and
Karen Landry, the only employees in the store - hunkered down and
decided to "do what we could" to help get necessary items ready for the
75 to 100 people that were stranded in the store. The six employees
worked a 52-hour shift.
Dean said he and staff tried to make motorists from Oklahoma - Dean's
home state - North Dakota, Colorado, Michigan, Mexico and Canada as
comfortable as they could by providing coffee, donuts, cookies and the
use of the store microwave. Dean said one couple had a grill in the back
of their truck and made fajitas. Wal-Mart donated the meat. Mark Weaver
with the ski group bought a George Forman Grill and food from the store
to feed the growing and groaning teen-age boys.
Several youths came to West and said they did not have any pillows or
blankets. West turned and took five steps and was met by Dean who asked,
"How many pillows and blankets do you need." Wal-Mart donated the
blankets and pillows to the boys. West believes a divine connection
allowed communication without words that night.
The ski group slept as best they could on the floor in the optical
department. Dean said, "You learn a lot about people when you have to
pull together."
On Sunday, the group, which held a prayer service in the store, was able
to secure 10 motel rooms, but needed more.
West contacted Father Matthew Wertin, new to Holy Trinity Parish, and
asked if Wertin knew of any place they could stay. The priest got the
cell phone number of Mike Jacobsen, an adult on the trip, and said he
would get back to them.
Wertin went into the small chapel inside the priests' residence and
prayed for an answer. Wertin said the first name that popped into his
head was "Murphy." He called the Murphy home and asked Paula Murphy if
she and her husband Tom would be willing to take in a few of the skiers.
She said yes, but wanted to call Tom and check since he was not home at
the time. "Knowing it was the right thing to do, Tom and I both said a
resounding yes and Tom drove to Wal-Mart to guide the skiers to our
home," Paula said.
Meanwhile, West's wife Cheryl, distraught about not having enough motel
rooms for the group of 46, started praying at the store. Minutes into
her prayers, she recalled, Tom Murphy walked in and asked, "Does anyone
know Mike Jacobsen?"
Murphy told the group leaders he would take home all 21 boys from the group.
Since there was nowhere to park the group's chartered bus downtown,
Murphy began ferrying the skiers into town, bringing them to the
Downtown Motel, where the group had 10 rooms, to the homes of Holy
Trinity parishioner Josephine Gagliardi and American Missionaries
Fellowship Stan and Jan Spiess, and to the Murphy home.One teenage girl
and her mother were transported to the hospital. The girl was
diagnosised with the flu.
Paula Murphy, Leona Sebastian and Betty Ramirez began preparing a
macaroni bake. When the skiers arrived, they were fed and allowed to
take hot showers.
The people not staying at the Murphy home walked the two blocks to get
there to visit after they cleaned up. It was New Year's Eve. At
midnight, the adults enjoyed champagne and the children sparkling cider,
toasting to new friends, new life lessons and a new year.
Sunday morning, breakfast for 50 was served at the Murphy home. The bus
was able to get out of the Wal-Mart lot and the group thanked their
hosts for the hospitality. Before they boarded the bus, the group went
into the Mullare-Murphy Chapel and gave prayers of thanks for their
86-hour ordeal. West reminded everyone that their "life journey" talk
that started their trip "through God's plan, was fulfilled in Trinidad."
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