CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) —  Blue Ridge Cyclery owner Shawn Tevendale has always been a big believer in helping his community, having worked as a career paramedic before opening his local bicycle shops. So during this most recent snowstorm, in which many of his neighbors in Earlysville have had trouble clearing their driveways due to ice, Tevendale has been offering his assistance.

“It’s kind of hard to sell bicycles when the weather gets like this,” he told Cville Right Now, “so it’s kind of my opportunity to step out and help my community where I can and do stuff to kind of give back.”

Using his own tractor, Tevendale has helped cleared close to 40 driveways by his own estimates. He’s done this for some of his adjacent neighbors for the past five or six years. But this time, he decided to branch out, posting on social media to offer his services to others who may need it.

“This one wasn’t really an average snow,” he said. ‘it was that little bit of powder that fell, and the all of a sudden, we got all this sleet and ice on top of all of it, and it just turned into an ice block. And so it created some real challenges for folks out here in the rural areas, out here in Earlysville and Free Union.”

Tevendale also knew from his time as a paramedic the challenges first responders can have reaching someone snowed into their home, as well as how some of his neighbors were at risk of falling and injuring themselves. On top of that, some neighbors who had reached out to him told him they had received high-priced quotes, upwards of $600, when looking into a professional driveway clearing.

“I don’t want to compete with the commercial guys,” Tevendale said. “They’ve got their living they’ve got to make and I totally get it. And this stuff is really hard and takes a lot of time and I get that it’s expensive for them to handle. And they’re also, from what I hear, breaking a good amount of equipment doing it.”

However for Tevendale, driving his tractor out a short distance to help a neighbor in need was “pretty simple,” and rather than charge a fee, he simply asked if those he helped could pitch in for advil for himself and diesel and oil for his tractor.

Of course, clearing out the driveways was easier said than done. Tevendale often had to run his tractor back and forth across much of the ice just to break it up while using the bucket and blade attached to his tractor chip away at it and move it around. As a result, a driveway that would usually take 10 minutes to go up and down would take an hour.

“I think they’re calling it ‘snow-crete,'” he joked.

Tevendale has also helped some people clear off handicap ramps, using the tools they have — including shovels, sledgehammers and mattocks — to break up the ice.

He said the people he’s helped so far have been very appreciative of his work, and while he’s not looking to make this another business venture, he wouldn’t be opposed to giving his neighbors a hand in the future.

“As long as I’m capable of getting out and lending a hand to my neighbors and to people within a reasonable range, I’m gonna do it for sure,” he said.