SISSETON, S.D (KELO) — The winter weather in KELOLAND may be closing schools and cancelling travel plans, but there’s something that it can’t stop: kindness.

Sydney Schmidt is a college student at Valley City State University in North Dakota.

When she found out Monday that finals would be online because of incoming weather, she decided to head home to Sioux Falls.

While the drive to Fargo was fine, the roads started getting icy around the border.

She planned on getting a hotel in Watertown, but didn’t make it that far.

Her car went in the ditch near Sisseton.

“Things got crazy. Start going in circles on the interstate, and just slide into this ditch,” college student Sydney Schmidt said.

After a tow, Schmidt spent the night at the local Super 8.

Meanwhile, her mother in Sioux Falls got the ball rolling on finding the 19-year-old another option in town.

“My mom called me in the morning, was like, ‘Hey, how are you? Do you want to stay at the Super 8? We have an offer for you to stay somewhere else in town with some lovely folks. The mayor’s going to come pick you up if you want that,'” Schmidt said.

The Sisseton mayor brought her to Neal and Jenny Nelson’s home.

Volk: What was your reaction when you got this communication saying, ‘We have someone and they need a place to stay?’
Jenny Nelson: Basically, we have children and we have a daughter who’s a little bit older than Sydney and we had a daughter who would’ve been 40 this year, a son and if any of our kids would’ve been in trouble we would’ve rather had them in a home and not in a motel all by themselves.

During her stay, she worked on school assignments and spent some time with the Nelsons playing games.

Volk: Sydney, how thankful are you all these people who helped you?
Schmidt: I am extremely thankful and incredibly lucky. I’m so grateful and I don’t know how to repay these kind folks.
Jenny Nelson: No repayment needed.

While Schmidt’s week got off to a scary start, kindness came to the rescue.

Schmidt says she hopes to stop at the Nelsons’ home and visit sometimes when she travels back and forth for college.