by Mari Radtke
Everybody suffered through that exceptionally cold stretch in mid-February. Most of us fared without more than being forced to bundle up. A few of us encountered bitter effects of the bitter temperatures. In one case on Greene Street bordering the south side of South O’Brien High School, one bitter effect was sweetened by a hero student, Oren Shomaker.
As school was beginning Oren was in Mr. Hansen’s classroom at the very south of the building in the lowest level. Oren was gazing out the window when he saw Grant DeMars struggling on the street with what appeared to be a tire. Grant had just dropped off his Jessica Watkins, a South O’Brien teacher at work. Extraordinary cold often created tire problems. Oren knew this. He works on his own truck. So Oren bundled into his warm outer-wear and ventured out to see how he could help. Oren says of his bravery on that -32 degree day, “The activity made me warm. It’s wasn’t that cold for me. It’s like any other day working on my own truck outside.” Oren says he watches YouTube videos to learn how to work on his truck. Particularly he recounted how it was a YouTube video that helped him learn how to replace the brakes, properly using the clamps and to bleed his truck’s brakes.
The driver of the small car seemed to have a flat tire with a frozen lug nut. Oren learns well. He knew that trying to use upper body strength to break the “seal” on that lug nut would be an all-day battle. Oren, a strapping young man, use his legs instead of his upper body to leverage enough torque on the lug wrench to break the grip the nut had on the bolt. Oren continued to help with changing the tire. Oren notes that guys are “necessarily good at asking.” He goes on to say that he learned to be kind from Miss Meyer and Mrs. Faust. It is part of communications skills.
Oren has traveled to the Okoboji area each summer for the past 3 years for his summer job. A favorite school activity for Oren is to work at welding in Mr. Kumm’s workshop. “I like to weld metal. Currently Oren plans to attend college for welding. He like fabrication and measuring.
For his thoughtfulness, Oren has been awarded a gift certificate from “The Hideout” in Germantown by “O’Brien County’s Bell-Times-Courier.”