<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Not all superheroes wear capes. Some wear flagger vests.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Courtesy of today's (September 10, 2014) Spokesman-Review </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------------------------</span></div><div><h1 style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; clear: both; overflow: visible !important;"><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Road worker honored for helping young children home alone</span></font></h1><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A Spokane County road crew worker who took action when she found three small children left home alone was recognized <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://1" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="1">Tuesday morning</a> by commissioners and her co-workers.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Kelley Stickelmeyer was with her crew about 7:30 a.m. on Aug. 14 preparing to patch pavement on Vista Grande Drive north of Trent Avenue when she saw two girls, ages 5 and 2, on the front porch. The older one was crying.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She hesitated at first, but when no adult appeared, she went to the porch and found the front door open. Inside, she saw a 1-year-old girl.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She said the older girl told her that their mother was home when she went to sleep but was gone when she awoke. The girl said her father was deceased.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">All three of the girls were in dirty diapers, with the two older children in night-time versions.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Stickelmeyer, 36, called 911 and waited with the girls until sheriff’s deputies arrived, she said.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I got them some water, poured them some cereal and played with them,” Stickelmeyer said. She showed them games on her phone and changed their underclothes.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I just wanted to make sure they were taken care of,” she said in an interview after the presentation. “Anyone would do that.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Stickelmeyer, who has a 7-year-old daughter, said, “I think we need to look out for our children. Those little girls are precious.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On Tuesday, Spokane County commissioners presented her with a plaque for “doing an outstanding job in response to a community emergency.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">About three dozen of her co-workers attended the morning presentation.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">State Child Protective Services was notified and took the children from the home, county officials said.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A spokesman for CPS declined to confirm that the agency was called and to comment on what happened with the children.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">However, the children’s grandparents arrived at the home while law enforcement was on scene, Stickelmeyer said.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She acknowledged that stepping into an uncertain situation involving someone else’s children was a “scary moment.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But if something happened to her own daughter, she said, “I hope … someone would take care of her.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Stickelmeyer has been working as a temporary seasonal employee and was assigned to flagging duty that day. Her job ends in October.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Her boss, Bob Keneally, said of Stickelmeyer, “Her true character showed through.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Kelley Stickelmeyer directs traffic Tuesday in Spokane Valley. She recently helped three unattended children while flagging with her crew.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img src="cid:256A2FE7-C391-4A91-B9BC-2C6C08CFC6D0" alt="SRX_STICKLEMEYER_001_TT10_t1240.jpg" id="256A2FE7-C391-4A91-B9BC-2C6C08CFC6D0" width="640" height="426"></span></p></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------------------------<br><br></span><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares"</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div></div></body></html>