Community Corner
Governor's Citations To Go To HoCo Couple, Bakery For Bread Blessing On I-95 During Storm
A Howard County couple and a Baltimore bakery will receive governor's citations for helping feed stranded, hungry people during a storm.
HOWARD COUNTY, MD — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said on Twitter he will award governor's citations to Casey Holihan and her husband, John Noe, along with H&S Bakery, for their "incredible selflessness" in helping feed starving people stranded along Interstate 95 in Virginia last week.
The Ellicott City couple had been stranded along the icy stretch of interstate for almost 16 hours. They hadn't eaten anything for nearly 37 hours. There were people all around them similarly hungry.
"We could hear kids crying," Holihan, 23, told The Washington Post.
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Sitting a few vehicles ahead of them was a Schmidt Baking Co. truck. Knowing it was probably a long shot, the Howard County couple called Schmidt Baking Co. in Baltimore to ask if the business would be willing to share whatever food was on that truck with the starving and desperate travelers. They reached the customer service line and left their phone number with a representative who promised to follow up on their request.
"I didn't think it would actually work," Holihan said.
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Just 20 minutes later, Chuck Paterakis, one of the owners of H&S Bakery that operates Schmidt Baking Co., called Holihan and told the couple to have the trucker give a package of rolls and a loaf of bread to every person who wanted the food.
"It was an easy decision," Paterakis told the Post. If he had been stuck out there on the road with no food, he added, "I would want someone to offer their products."
Truck driver Ron Hill, Holihan and Noe carried the packaged food to vehicles around them. For an hour, the trio cautiously walked along the ice-covered road and delivered more than 300 packages of bread to grateful travelers.
The 50-mile section of Interstate 95 in Virginia was paralyzed for more than 20 hours by a storm that dumped about a foot of snow in the area last week.
Read more:
Couple, Trucker Carry 300 Food Packages To Stranded I-95 Drivers
I-95 Shutdown: All Drivers Escape Road After 20+ Hours, Plows Out
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