Appleton, WI (WTAQ) – After more than 20 hours of being stranded on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in a snow storm, a group of about 150 students and chaperones from the Green Bay Diocese returned home to Wisconsin.
“The snow storm really wasn’t that bad, I mean it’s all just how you look at it,” said Mason Dreger, a student on the trip.
The group arrived at St. Pius X Parish in Appleton, just before 10 a.m. Sunday.
The group was on its way back from Washington, D.C. after taking part in a March for Life event when they became stranded.
“We had some snowball fights, made a few snowmen,and just the conversations that we had was probably the best part about it,” Dreger said.
Maria Schuette, Religious Education Youth Ministry Director for the Green Bay Diocese, said the group left a day earlier than planned in an effort to beat the winter storm.
She said they became stranded on the turnpike when a crash ahead of them blocked traffic.
She added the students made the best of a bad situation.
“We had a great time just being able to do service for our neighbor, and bringing water and food and joy and heat to the people around us,” Schuette said.
The National Guard was able to clear the roads by Saturday night so traffic could start moving.
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