In 2003, Jamaican Andrain Roach visited Minnesota for the first time after being invited to come by a family from Bloomington, Minnesota, that he met while they were on vacation in Negril at the Sandals and Beaches Resorts. Roach was working there as an entertainment coordinator at the time. Roach made the trip without knowing anything about Minnesota’s winter weather and arrived wearing jeans and a t-shirt in the middle of a record-setting blizzard. On the drive from the airport, he saw cars sliding off the road and was impressed at how everyone was willing to stop and help those in distress. He and his friends joined in the efforts to help stranded motorists, and the experience stuck with him. Ultimately, Roach left Jamaica and moved to the area of Savage, Minnesota that had so impressed him and that he had grown to love. Now, in 2019, Roach is set to serve as Savage’s fire department chief. Read the rest of the story here by Christine Schuster. 

Photo source:  Savage Fire Department- Minnesota