Snow ‘angels’ skip sleep for 3 days to help Kansas City area people in blizzard
It started on a whim.
Saturday night. Blizzard predicted, roads turning slick. Cory Sutton and Summer Gifford, both 30 years old, with three kids and a 2009 GMC Sierra pickup truck, had run out of sandpaper. Sutton’s been laboring on a full remodel of their Kansas City, Kansas, house near The Legends since August.
His arms were exhausted from sanding the walls. Gifford’s mom was watching the kids.
“I got bored,” Sutton said. “I told my wife. ‘Let’s go out and see if there’s anybody out there that needs help.’ There’s people stranded out there. It’s just too cold for that.”
He posted messages on various Facebook sites announcing they were available.
Thus began an odyssey of good Samaritanship that not even they anticipated, and one that has drawn gratitude from across the Kansas City area. As of Tuesday afternoon, with temperatures hovering in the 20s, Sutton and Gifford were still at it, helping people for three days straight on roughly 10 hours sleep and asking nothing in return.
Digging people’s vehicles out of the snow. Dropping off groceries. A mother asked the couple if they could pick up her son from his night shift job. He’d been waiting three hours for an Uber that never came. Sutton and Gifford picked him up at 1 a.m. Sunday and brought him home.
As of Tuesday, by their own estimate, they’d helped more than 100 people and counting.
‘We were hungry’
“They’re absolute angels,” said Misty Hilton, a stranger to the couple until Sunday night, when, snowed in at home with no food and no car, she contacted the pair on Facebook, asking if they could pick up something to eat for her and her husband, Bill Saunders.
“The situation was we didn’t order enough groceries. We were hungry,” Hilton said. Stores around them were shut. Sutton and Gifford went to a QuikTrip near The Legends and picked up hot dogs, chips and drinks.
“I live in Westport,” Hilton said. “They drove all that way.”
Hilton, who contacted The Star about the helpful couple, paid for the food they purchased and tried to give the them more. But they refused until Hilton insisted they take it use the money to help others. So they did.
“Every penny we have received has gone back into the gas tank,” said Gifford, with one exception: About $165 on Tuesday went for a new truck battery after theirs gave out. Over three days, the couple estimates they’ve driven hundreds of miles in the snow — to homes, to hospitals.
‘It’s such a blessing’
A friend of Hilton’s, Kristen Johnson, also needed help.
Recently separated from her husband, Johnson lives in a trailer she owns in Kansas City, Kansas. Her pipes had frozen in the cold and, on Tuesday remained that way. With no furnace, Johnson said she and her five children rely on space heaters. Inside, they can see their breath as mist.
“They came and brought me jugs of water,” Johnson, 41 said. “They were amazing. She (Gifford) even gave me her number and told me that if you ever need help with anything else at any tine to call her at any time.
“They didn’t even ask for anything. I think it’s amazing how when people help each other, it’s such a blessing.”
At Providence Medical Center, Sutton and Gifford came to the call of a young mother.
“She had no heat in her house,” Gifford said. “She had three kids. One of them is autistic. She was trying to get to her sister’s over in Turner. She was three minutes away, stuck in the snow and in the cold with her babies.”
A helping hand
The couple is of modest means. Gifford is a stay-at-home mom. Sutton, educated in auto repair, has taken a leave of absence from work to redo their home. They understand what it means to be in need and get a helping hand.
“I have always wanted to give back to the community,” Gifford said. “I’ve been there, you know. I had my first kid at 16. I had two kids by the time I was 18. It was a struggle. I’ve been on the streets with nowhere to go. I’ve been in a tent in the woods. So I’ve been there.
“I want to teach my kids to be good people and to give back and help those who need it. You know, don’t be selfish, and don’t be stingy. If you can give back, give back, because there’s others out there less fortunate.”
With a new battery installed, they were out again Tuesday afternoon. In Kansas City, Kansas, a man’s truck was stuck in the snow near a ditch. Kendall Amos had been trying to get to his job where he works overnight caring for people with developmental disabilities.
“It was actually a blessing for these people to be out,” Amos said. “It’s just a blessing people going around and actually helping people out without overcharging them an arm and a leg... They actually charged me zero dollars.”
Next stop, Overland Park to shovel someone’s driveway.
This story was originally published January 7, 2025 at 5:14 PM.
