- Welcome back y'all!
As you know, it's been a rough winter
around this country.
This storm, that blanketed the East Coast
a couple weeks ago
shut down a 50 mile stretch of I-95 in Virginia,
stranding thousands of drivers,
some for nearly two days.
We want to give a big thank you
to our friends at NBC4 Washington for this footage.
But in all that mess and confusion,
there are countless stories of people being awesome.
And this is just one of them.
Please welcome Casey and John,
a couple from Maryland,
along with Ron, a truck driver.
All three were stranded on I-95,
but thanks to their humanity,
they fed hundreds of hungry people
and we'll get to that in a second.
Okay. So first, Casey and John.
Where were you guys first headed?
How did you get stuck?
- [Casey] Hi Kelly. Thank you so much for having us on.
- [Kelly} Hi!
- [Casey] We were driving from Maryland
down in North Carolina.
We're newlyweds and John is in the Air Force
and we actually just found out
that we are moving from Dover, Delaware
all the way to Ramstein, Germany.
We're in the airport right now.
Thank you so much to the USO.
But we were headed down to say goodbye to his family
before we left.
- Yeah, so we left Monday morning.
We got up that morning and it had already started snowing.
So we kind of just skipped breakfast
and decided to get on the road.
And we're just hoping to get past the storm and get off,
get some food later.
We quickly learned that would not be the case.
It took us about six hours to get south of DC,
which is normally about an hour, hour and a half drive.
And then probably like eight or nine hours into the drive,
we came to a stop around Quantico.
- Yeah, it was about 8:00 PM when we finally stopped moving.
- Wow! And Ron, you were also headed to Maryland, right?
- Yes. I had left Maryland at 9:00 AM
headed to Norfolk, Virginia.
- [Kelly] Hmm.
- And a trip that takes usually four hours,
four and a half hours to get there,
ended up taking 36 hours.
As for myself,
I didn't have nothing to eat that morning either.
I was going to stop on the way down.
- Yeah.
- [Ron] I usually don't drive in the snow.
My wife mentioned that to me, but I told her I felt peace.
So I headed on out.
- [Kelly] What was it like you guys?
I mean, were you scared?
Like, that's like two days possibly in your car.
I mean, I know there's a bunch of people around,
but it's so cold. It had to be rough.
Like just sitting there in your car.
- Originally, we were really frustrated and anxious,
but I know we tried to find humor
(John chuckles)
somewhere in there.
I was actually playing rock paper scissors
with the cars around us at one point.
(Kelly laughs)
But it got surreal when yeah, it got surreal
when we saw, like, abandoned cars,
people walking to look for help.
People, people were very upset, but we were so hungry.
That's all I remember was being so starving the entire time.
Normally I would have like a...
Like my own car, we were in a rental car,
but normally there'd be a french fry under the seat.
There wasn't. There was no water.
- Oh my gosh.
Well, Ron, you must've been second guessing that whole like,
usually I don't like to drive
in winter circumstances at this point.
(Kelly laughs)
- Yes. Yes.
It was kind of eerie at first.
Cause it got real quiet.
I mean, real quiet out there.
You can hear a pin drop.
And so I immediately got in the back, prayed,
prayed some more.
Praying some more over something I could do to help.
And, next thing you know, here we are.
An hour went past, two hours went past,
three hours went past and next thing you know,
it was daylight and we're getting texts on our phones
stating that help is on the way, but help never came.
- Oh my gosh. That's so scary.
Well, thousands of drivers were stranded overnight
in frigid temperatures
with no sign of help, like Ron was saying.
Casey, fortunately you all made it through the night.
So when did you meet Ron?
- Yeah. So when the sun rose,
it had been about 37 hours to that point,
since we were last eating and we were starving
and I had seen the Schmidt Baking Company truck
ahead of us and John actually made a joke to me
about how nice it would be just to have even a loaf of bread
at that point of time.
And it kind of hit me
that maybe there might be bread on that truck.
Yeah, I saw it was a Schmidt Bread Baking Company truck,
and I just called the customer service line.
And my mom did as well,
she was so worried about us.
And about 20 minutes later,
we got a call back from Chuck
and he was absolutely incredible.
Just the kindest man in the entire world.
And he told me to give the phone to Ron.
Or the truck driver,
he didn't know who it was.
But give the phone to the truck driver.
- And Ron, I mean, at first,
are you like, oh, they know I have something in my truck.
Like, are people creeping up on my...
Like, I would have been freaking out.
People walking up on my truck at that point.
And I'm like, oh, it's,
it's going to get Hunger Games.
I was like...
Cause it's not yours, technically.
You know, you're driving the truck.
So what were you thinking at that point?
- Well, I was in the back, like I said,
praying and like finally got to the front seat
and I see this lady walking on the ice
with her cell phone in her hand,
trying to hold her balance.
And I'm saying
"I wonder where she's going? She can't go nowhere."
So she comes to my door and she stops,
so I roll the window down
thinking she needs some assistance.
She said, "I'm talking to Chuck from Schmidt Bakery.
He would like to talk to you."
So she handed me the phone, I introduce myself,
he introduces himself.
He asked me if I had a problem opening up my truck,
handing out bread.
And I said "Well, Chuck, this is an answered prayer",
because I was praying
about what could I do to help the people?
Cause I was getting hungry myself.
And I got out, opened up the back of my trailer.
John took some, Casey took some.
John went south, Casey went north,
and I went all around the cars in front of me,
the trucks in front of me,
but there's one particular lady and she looked frightened,
she looked scared.
And she says she hasn't heard from her family.
Her phone was dead.
And so I handed her the bread and then I mentioned to her,
"Too bad I don't have no fish so I can give you some fish.
You'd have fish and bread, like the biblical thing."
(Kelly laughs)
We laughed, she was happy, she took it from there.
But I thank Casey and John for assisting me.
Thank y'all, thank you.
(audience claps)
- [Kelly] Oh my gosh.
And thank you!
You must have some kind of direct line.
I'm going to send all my prayer requests to you, Ron.
I'm like you have a direct line to God,
- I'd get them through.
(Kelly laughs)
- Like, but, John and Casey,
how did people react when y'all started giving out bread?
- You know, everybody that we were able to reach
were just so thankful.
Just like us many people hadn't eaten in over 24 hours.
And it definitely made us
a little more thankful for our situation.
As we saw those around us,
there was a lot of people
that were either by themselves or...
- Yeah, they hadn't talked to anybody in,
in almost 24 hours.
A lot of them were scared, like Ron said.
- Yeah, or they were in completely packed cars with no room.
Some people had animals as well as young children.
- But it really just created this friendship
and this community,
and I don't even think we got to say goodbye at all.
- No, we kind of all got off the highway quick in a hurry.
As soon as it became a possibility.
- Yeah, but it definitely created this little community.
I don't think I'm going to forget any time soon.
- Well, Casey, John, and Ron did get to see each other
one last time, thanks to someone
we have calling in right now.
Please, everybody welcome Chuck Paterakis,
one of the owners of H and S Bakery in Baltimore.
Hi, Chuck!
- Hello. Hi Kelly.
- [Kelly] Hello!
- Thank you, thank you very much for having us on the show.
We really appreciate it.
- [Kelly] No, absolutely, and thank you!
- Uh, my customer service...
- [Kelly] Can I say thank you first though?
Your generosity. I mean, you helped so many people.
That was so cool what you did
and I know that you don't even want me to thank you.
You want to thank these three, right?
- [Chuck] Yes. Obviously deep appreciation is to them
to think ahead and be proactive as they were.
You know, I remember telling Ron
"Give out two or three loaves to every person they can get,
not just one, give it all."
We had 8,000 units of bread and rolls on a truck.
And I told Ron, "Give it all away if you have to."
- [Kelly] Oh wow. That's so cool.
(audience applauds)
Well, Ron, I understand
the Governor of Maryland is honoring you all this week.
So what are you taking away from this?
- Redemption. Redemption.
- [Kelly] Oh my gosh.
- I had a troubled past
and how it was all coming to full circle.
It allows me to be honored.
So I feel that my labor has not been in vain.
Blessed to be a blessing.
Thank you.
- [Kelly] Oh my God, Ron.
I wish you... I would hug you so hard.
I feel like you might be a great hugger.
I'm just, I'm like I can't cause a lot of COVID
and all that, but like I would risk it
and not tell the lawyers.
I, I think that you are just, you're such a peaceful guy.
I'm really happy that you were there in that circumstance.
I'm really happy. John and Casey, y'all were there
to think of others and not just yourself.
It's such a beautiful thing.
And we love everything about what you guys did.
So we want each of you to have something
in appreciation for your kindness.
We know you're a huge Baltimore Ravens fan, Ron.
So thanks to the team,
you're getting four tickets to see them next season.
(Kelly mimics air horn)
Yes! And Casey and John,
we know that you just got married
and we want you to enjoy a special honeymoon.
So when you're not in Germany and serving our country,
thank you for doing that,
we're sending you on a four night trip to Hawks Cay Resort,
an iconic Florida Keys destination.
You'll stay in a luxurious two bedroom penthouse suite,
enjoy dining at the resort's marina restaurant
and prime chop house and get pampered with my favorite part,
a couples massage at the Calm Waters Spa lounge.
How's that sound, y'all?
(audience applauds)
(audio cuts out)
- [Casey] Thank you so much!
- [John] Sounds great!
- [Kelly] No, that's so awesome.
- [Ron] Thank you.
- [Kelly] And good luck Casey and John in Germany.
Thank you so much for your service.
We really do appreciate it.
Ron, thank you so much for your service to humanity
and just being just a total cool guy.
And thank you so much Chuck and Schmidt Bread Company.
Thank y'all so much.
For those people it was perfect
that that truck was there right at that time.
It was the perfect place, perfect time.