Off-duty deputies help Grafton Township woman with her lawn

GRAFTON TWP. — After responding to an on-duty call to assist a woman who was having trouble mowing her lawn in Tuesday's heat, a group of five deputies representing the Lorain County Deputies Association showed up while off-duty Wednesday to finish the job. Adam Shaw, the union's secretary and a Lorain County deputy sheriff, said two members of the union were on-duty Tuesday when the call went out to a farmhouse on Law Road, he told The Chronicle-Telegram after reporters saw a Facebook post about the good deed. After they checked to see the resident was OK, and without any direction or orders, the deputies took their off-duty time and used their own equipment to finish mowing a portion of the woman's 20-acre property. Some of the grass was "knee-high" and it was probably the first cut of the year, said Shaw, who brought his own zero-turn mower out to help. Other members of the union brought push mowers and weed whackers to tackle the grass. The deputies spent two hours working, and afterward "got to hang out with the goats a little bit" on the farm, Shaw said. The nature of the small gesture became more apparent after Shaw posted a photo he took on the LCDA Facebook page. He said a 14-year-old boy from Sheffield Township sent him a message on Facebook offering his services to anyone who might need it — first to the homeowner the deputies helped, then to any others closer to his home when it was clear transportation might be an issue. Still, Shaw said the association was impressed and hopeful that some more good behavior by neighbors helping neighbors might come from it. "We try, and it's hard at times, but we try to do what we can to get out there," he said. "We'd like to do more of it." Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him at @daveobrienCT on Twitter.