“This was a wonderful, feel-good act, as far as one citizen taking care of another,” Mayor of St. Charles Raymond Rogina said. “Our town is most grateful for that.”

When 89-year-old Sara Mignin, whose name was released by the St. Charles Patch, did not arrive to her daughter’s home as scheduled on a February morning, her daughter called the police. Detectives began working on the case, and found that credit card usage in Wisconsin to buy gasoline, St. Charles Deputy Chief of police Steve Huffman said. A few days later, Scheib was in a Panda Express in East Lansing when Mignin came in and asked for help with directions.

“She named a couple cities I wasn’t familiar with so my friend looked them up on his cell phone and realized they were in Illinois,” Scheib said. “She didn’t realize she was in Michigan … It became evident I just needed to drive her to her family.”

After calling Mignin’s family and debating what to do, Scheib agreed to meet her family halfway, which ended up being South Bend, Ind. Her daughter informed Scheib that she had been missing for a few days. Scheib drove Mignin’s car back, and had friends in the area that were able to pick her up and drive her back home after she made sure Mignin was safe and with her family.

“She was completely coherent, knowledgeable and friendly,” Scheib said. “She got it, she just wouldn’t have made it back on her own.”

This is the first time that someone out of state has been recognized for these awards, Huffman said. Scheib drove back down to St. Charles, Ill., where she was presented with a plaque by Police Chief Jim Lamkin, as a way to thank Scheib for her willingness to help.

“It just goes to prove that we do have a lot of good people and there’s not a question about it,” Rogina said. “There’s a lot of good stories to offset the negative in the world and this was certainly one of them.”