Eighty-seven-year-old William “Bill” Breit has lived in his Johnsburg home along the Fox River for more than 40 years. And – despite being on hospice due to injuries suffered 2½ years ago in a car accident – he refuses to leave.

However, the recents rains and rising river attempted to threaten that plan.

But when word spread that the U.S. Air Force veteran needed help to save his home – which has endured three major flooding events in 1986, 2013 and 2017 – calls were made, and more than 30 people showed up.

Breit, who was a farmer before owning car dealerships, said the kindness he was shown Saturday was “unbelievable.”

“It was great,” he said. “There were some people I didn’t even know. I can’t appreciate it enough. It’s beautiful.”

Breit’s daughter Laura Hass said: “Oh my god, it was so nice.”

The help came as a relief, since many friends and family members who had helped in the past have moved or passed away.

Hass, who grew up in that home and today is a bus driver for Johnsburg School District 12, said that after word spread that the family needed help, “people just kept showing up, showing up and showing up.”

A close family friend, Lindsey Johnson, said she heard about Breit’s situation from her father, formerly of Johnsburg, now living in Florida. He said Breit “needs all the help he can get. How many people can you get there to sandbag?”

Hass recalled talking to Johnson, who said: “OK, what do we need and when do we need to be there?”

Johnson called multiple area residents, including James “JD” Sylvanus, who among other local positions, is a Johnsburg High School wrestling and football coach, as well as a village trustee. Sylvanus then enlisted his athletes and their families as well as his own family.

Johnson said the help came quickly “and we knocked everything out in about two hours. It just felt really good coming together and helping someone who could use the help.”

What had taken the Breit family an entire day to do during past floods was accomplished on Saturday in a couple of hours with more than 30 helpers bagging more than 200 bags of sand. With leftover sand, the volunteers continued filling about 80 more sandbags and piled them up for others who need them.

“That is why I live in Johnsburg,” Hass said. ”It’s a great community. They help out. When you need them they are there."

As of Monday Breit’s boathouse and yard were flooding, his family said.

Hass, whose own home on Pistakee Lake is at risk for flooding, said her father is “stubborn” and “very strong-willed,” and he wants to stay in his home no matter what. He is not a man who asks for help. But this time, he needed it.

“He doesn’t like that helpless feeling, but he was very grateful. ... He does not want to leave his house,” Hass said, adding the assistance “did mean a lot. Our goal is to keep him in the house for the duration.”

Hass said that during past floods, her dad “never left. He stays and watches everything. He does the pumps and maintains what he can.”

She recalls the 1986 flood when 9 inches of water flooded the home, which was built in 1938, same year he was born.

“I remember sitting there and water rolling in under the walls,” she said, recalling that the 2013 and 2017 floods also were “really bad.”

To the community who stepped up for her father, Hass says, “Thank you.”

Breit’s granddaughter Kailee Schultz, also of Johnsburg, said: “I think it’s amazing.”

“All you see is a lot of negativity happening in the world right now,” Schultz said. “Just to see people show up ... it’s really cool.”