(Riverton, WY) – A City of Riverton employee, Travis Lewis, uploaded a public video to his personal Facebook page on Saturday morning. In the video, he says that he is substitute driving a garbage truck on a route that handles City Park in Riverton. While emptying a dumpster, Travis says he found a woman frozen to the bottom.
She was still alive, but he had to help her get unfrozen, he continued. Unsure of what to do, he let her warm up in the truck’s cab and called his parents, who picked her up. They provided her with a place to get a warm bath and wash her clothes.
Travis states in his video that Riverton doesn’t have a shelter for her to go to and pleads for anyone to help her so she doesn’t become a “popsicle.”
Comments on his post recommend the warming huts behind the 789 Casino that were set up by Wind River Cares.
However, Travis told County 10 that he couldn’t in good conscience send her to a hut and that she needed more help than he could provide.
There is currently one shelter in Riverton, Eagles Hope Transitions. They take unhoused but sober community members. They are currently full and have a waiting list. However, they will help anyone in an emergency situation. So, County 10 connected Travis and Eagle Hope’s Executive Director Michelle Widmayer in hopes of finding the right help for this lady.
An effort is also underway to establish a shelter in Riverton for the unhoused. The Riverton Rescue Mission is in the process of raising $25,000 for a feasibility study. Once the money is raised, the Casper-based Wyoming Rescue Mission will sustain them. They hope to have a shelter up and running by this upcoming summer.
The full video is shared below, but contains an expletive at the end.