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Kind Lifeguard Goes Out of His Way to Help Get 94-Year-Old to the Beach
| By Margo Gothelf
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Thanks to one helpful lifeguard, a 94-year-old woman’s day was made.
On a recent vacation to Montauk, New York, Janet Dunne’s mother was not able to join the rest of her family on the beach because of mobility issues. Hoping to solve this issue, she called the local Chamber of Commerce looking to get a beach wheelchair.
“Other years we had walked her down and each taken a side,” Dunne told ABC News. “There were stairs, but this year they took the stairs away. My sister-in-law and I knew we’d never get her down there. She’d sit at the house until noon, and then we’d take her to sit at the pool and we’d check on her every 45 minutes, but we felt bad.”
Once Dunne was able to get into contact with the Chamber, they told her to ask the local lifeguards. However, the lifeguards told her that they didn’t have ayone available.
The request however struck lifeguard Shane McCann, who decided to step up and help the family.
McCann decided to go the extra mile and offer Dunne’s mother door to door service to the beach. He picked her up in a dune buggy and personally drove her to the beach so she could see and hear the waves.
“Shane was there and he said, ‘I’ll pick your mom up,’ and pointed to the dune buggy,” said Dunne. “My mom was game, so he picked her up right at her room. But he didn’t just pick her up. He got out and gave her both of his hands and helped her in and he was just wonderful. He brought her right down to where we were sitting.”
The kind gesture stuck with the family once their trip was over and Dunne made sure to contact the Chamber to tell them about McCann and his wonderful act of kindness.
She posted a photo of McCann driving her mother to the beach on Facebook with a note thanking him. The note and picture were quick to go viral with many shares and likes on the post.
“I am proud of him. He’s a really, really good boy with integrity,” McCann’s mom, Jenna, told ABC News. “That doesn’t surprise me at all with how he handled that situation. I think he’s sensitive to having respect for his elders. His grandmother has Alzheimer’s and he’s watched her demise and it’s given him appreciation. He’s always been a good boy.”
The good deed meant a lot to Dunne and her family.
“It meant the world that my mom got to go down there and enjoy,” Dunne said. “It might be her last year going, so the fact she got to sit there with us for even a couple of hours, it meant the world.”
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