Alaska National Guard honors NAPA manager

WASILLA — When Sgt. Mjr. Richard Hildreth was deploying to Afghanistan a few months ago, Kevin Steverson offered to help his family while he was away.

“Just come ask. Doesn’t matter if it’s shoveling snow or fixing a car,” the Wasilla NAPA Auto Parts store manager recalled at a ceremony in his honor Tuesday. “He does what he does every day and doesn’t think twice about it,” Steverson said.

While he spoke, an Alaska National Guard Center of Influence medallion hung from his neck, an Alaska National Guard unit coin rested in his pocket and a certificate in his hand explained why he’d received both.

Brigadier General Leon “Mike” Bridges, Commanding General of the Alaska Army National Guard and assistant Adjutant General of the Alaska National Guard, was present at a small ceremony at the Wasilla NAPA store Tuesday morning to thank Steverson personally for lending a helping hand to Sgt. Mjr. Richard and Marlene Hildreth and other military families.

Sgt. Mjr. Hildreth spent seven months in Kabul, Afghanistan, recently as a liaison with the Mongolian military. While he was away, the family’s 2001 Ford Excursion started acting up.

That spelled trouble for wife Marlene who was at home in the Mat-Su Valley caring for their six children. The Excursion was the family’s transportation to their schools, jobs, after school activities, the grocery store — everything.

But using Skype to diagnose a bad alternator from the other side of the world while contending with time zone differences and work responsibilities is nearly impossible. So Hildreth suggested his wife to head to NAPA.

“We’d had a relationship with Kevin when he worked at the Palmer store,” Hildreth said.

And Steverson stepped up. True to his word, he helped Marlene get the alternator and get it installed. Hildreth said he also offered her a bit of moral support, putting the problem in perspective so it didn’t seem like such a big crisis.

“It’s always good to have someone in the community you can lean on,” Hildreth said.

And while one act of kindness for a family with a father deployed might not seem like a big deal, others in the room shared similar stories of Steverson’s helpfulness. For him, they say good deeds are a habit.

That’s a view shared by his boss, NAPA storeowner Jim Ruda. He said there’s a reason he picked Steverson to manage his biggest store — his “flagship,” as Ruda put it.

“He’s excellent with people, he completely understands customer service, he’s detail-oriented,” Ruda said. “Basically, he believes in what I believe in — take care of the customer first.”

Tuesday’s gathering was a surprise for Steverson, and in a word, he said he felt “overwhelmed.”

“I would’ve never in a million years expected something like that,” he said.

As Tuesday’s gathering ended, Hildreth and Steverson’s talk switched to the Hildreth family’s latest project — rebuilding a Ford pickup.

Before long, they’d moved downstairs to the counter so Steverson could check to see if some needed parts were in stock.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.