SaskPower employee receives Lifesaving Award after helping man stranded near Nipawin

A SaskPower employee said he was surprised after hearing his act of kindness earlier this year made him a recipient of a Lifesaving Award.

The awards are handed out each year by Electricity Canada, recognizing employees for going above and beyond in many situations throughout the year.

This year, Darrell Kalthoff received an award after finding an elderly man stranded in -30 C weather on a dark night this past January.

Kalthoff and his crew were working near a gravel road in the Nipawin area.

“We were done for the day. It was dark out at about 6 o’clock or so,” he said. “As I was driving by one of our access points to get to the power line we had cleared out, I thought I saw something in the ditch.”

Kalthoff was curious about what he saw and eventually radioed to his colleagues that he might have seen someone off the side of the road.

“I turned around and I pulled up and I came across this 65-year-old from The Pas,” Kalthoff said. “He had left his house that morning before anyone was up. He was moose hunting, is what he said.”

According to Kalthoff, the man was finishing his hunting when he eventually got stuck and tried to walk to the highway.

“This happened very early in the morning, and it took him all day to walk out of the bush and he got to the highway at dark just as we were coming by,” Kalthoff said.

Kalthoff recalled the man holding a cane as well as two SaskPower stakes because he was getting sore from all the walking.

He helped the man into his truck to warm up. As cellphone service was not the best in that remote area, Kalthoff decided the best thing to do was to drive the man to his home in The Pas, about two hours from where they currently were.

“”The man was very thankful,” Kalthoff said. “He was in shock, I think, that I did what I did for him.”

When Kalthoff got the news that he was being given a Lifesaving Award, he was surprised and humbled, believing he didn’t do anything that heroic.

“I didn’t do anything else that no one else that I know wouldn’t have done either,” he said. “It’s a very humbling experience, to say the least.”

His advice to others is to not think twice if you see something out of the ordinary, especially on a frigid night. Chances are it is something or someone needing a helping hand.