Goddard school officer helps family get broken-down RV back on road

When a family’s recreational vehicle broke down at a rural intersection near Goddard, members of the community rallied on Thursday to get it back on the road.

Trudi Randolph, an officer with the Goddard School District’s police force, said a mother, father and two teenagers from Springdale, Ark., had been living in their RV and had come to town to camp at Lake Afton.

When they left the lake, the back left tire on their RV came off with such force that it sheared the bolts on the wheel, she said.

And so the RV sat near 215th and MacArthur, southwest of Goddard.

Randolph saw the mother and the two teens walking the roughly 5 miles from where their RV broke down to Wal-Mart on Wednesday, so she decided to check on them Thursday to make sure they had fixed the RV.

They hadn’t.

Camping in the cold RV was not easy for the family, Randolph said. The man whose yard the RV was parked adjacent to provided gas so the family could run the vehicle, but Randolph said they were fearful of asphyxiation.

Randolph asked the school district’s mechanic whether he could take a look at the RV.

The mechanic said he could not work on the RV on the street – it needed to be towed into a shop and jacked up, Randolph said. That tow was going to cost between $300 and $400, she said.

The Goddard Lions Club offered to pay for the tow, and the mechanic “opened his wallet and took out a credit card – he didn’t even bat an eye that it was going to be $350,” Randolph said.

The company that provided the tow, Arrow Wrecker Service, moved the RV for free, Randolph said.

With some spare parts the RV’s owner provided and a few salvaged rims and tires, the RV was repaired overnight Thursday.

It was returned to the family, who had spent the night with a friend who had come to town, on Friday morning, Randolph said.

By Friday afternoon, the RV was out of Goddard.

“It was just fantastic,” Randolph said. “Everybody came through to help a family out that needed help.”

This story was originally published December 19, 2015 at 5:43 PM with the headline "Goddard school officer helps family get broken-down RV back on road."