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Taking to heart repeated warnings from local police not to open the door for strangers, Clinton resident Marilyn Werner was wary when she heard a knock Feb. 2.

Looking out the window, she said she was surprised to see Tyrone Eugene, a fellow resident of her Williamsburg Estates community, who was there to let her know that when the snow the region was bracing for finally hit, he and other residents would take care of her shoveling.

"I was so pleased when they came," said Werner, 76, who can no longer shovel due to problems with her right knee and lower back. "I asked them if they were expecting compensation, and [Eugene] said ‘No, no.'"

Werner and other residents of Williamsburg Estates point to Eugene's volunteer shoveling crew and other acts of neighborly kindness as one of the few good things to come from the recent series of blizzards, which dumped several feet of snow throughout the region.

Eugene, 40, a real estate agent, said he began recruiting volunteers after learning that an elderly neighbor had died during the heavy snowfall in late December. The man was shoveling snow around his home, Eugene said, which may have exacerbated existing health problems.

"When I heard about it, I said, ‘This shouldn't happen,'" he said. "We have enough people here in the neighborhood; they should be able to take care of the snow."

Eugene reached out to community leaders and members of the homeowners' association, who made a list of residents who might need assistance because of their age or health.

Soon after a minor snowfall dusted the region on Feb. 2, Eugene and a half-dozen other volunteers — ranging from teenagers to men and women in their mid-50s — got to work.

"It's like the shovel brigade; it's great to see this kind of neighborhood effort," said Dorothy Carolyn Lowe, who lives in the neighborhood and helped Eugene reach out to neighbors.

Of the approximately 225 households in the Williamsburg Estates community, Eugene said he had at least 10 homes on his list for the most recent storms and expects to add more as word gets around. If it snows again, he and the other volunteers plan to continue the free shoveling service for any neighbors in need.

Robert McNeal, president of the Williamsburg Estates Civic Association, said that for as long as the streets were impassable due to the snow, residents cooked for one another, took orders for groceries if they managed to get a car unstuck for a few hours and continued to check on neighbors who are elderly, sick or living alone.

"We pretty much got a nice little blanket of people that want to participate," he said.

Eugene said that in anticipation of future emergencies, he would like to start a community stockpile of essential supplies, such as batteries and flashlights.

Once the snow is gone, Eugene said residents in need can continue to rely on him and other neighborhood volunteers for support.

"They all have my number. ... It's not just snow, [it's] all year now," he said.