Snowed-in strangers surprised with shovelled driveways in Halifax

A random act of kindness has inspiredpeople across the Halifax region topay it forwardby surprisingstrangers withshovelled driveways after a winter storm dumped heavy snow across Nova Scotia.

Jake MacKinnon, a Halifax man who shovels driveways to make some extra cash, has been trying to keep up with requests for his serviceafter one woman decided to pay for a stranger's driveway to be cleared Monday.

"She asked if she could send me some money to prepay for a stranger's snow removalat her expense," said MacKinnon, who isusually accompanied on the job by his dog, Max.

The woman, Terri-Linh Hua-Ayles, had booked MacKinnon ahead of the winter storm that dropped upward of50 centimetres of snow across Nova Scotiaon Sunday night.

But before the storm, Hua-Ayles had to cancel her home hadflooded and she and her family had to suddenly move out.

"I couldn't hire him and I felt bad," she said. "So I just decided, hey, why not do something nice for a stranger?"

MacKinnonsaid he was inspired by the generosity.

He wrote a post on Facebookasking people to nominate two people who deservedto have their driveway cleared one at the expense at Hua-Ayles, and the other at his own expense.

"I actually had a lot of people messageme. The feedback was unbelievable with how many people wanted to join us," he said.

"I probably had at least 10 people message me wanting to send money to shovel random people's properties,people that deserved it."

By Monday afternoon, 11strangers had donated money to help11others.

"Everybody is deserving to have it done, of course. I just wish I could [help] everybody, but I'm only one man andmy dog doesn't really help too much. He just watches," MacKinnon said with a laugh.

Hua-Aylessaid she didn't expect her random act of kindness to catch on the way it did.

"It made me incredibly happy to know that there are still people out there who are cool with helping strangers," she said."Strangers helping strangers, basically."

MacKinnon said he will continue offering his snow removal services this winter, and he hopes more people will consider paying it forward.