HELPING: When facing common hardship, the local community is known for pulling together to make sure everyone gets through.

There were no doubt many such stories during the recent weeklong boil water advisory. Here’s one.

The McKean County SPCA put a call out for assistance at the start of the advisory, as the cats and dogs could not drink unboiled water.

Help arrived swiftly.

“We had support from families and friends in Elk, McKean, Cattaraugus and Allegany counties,” SPCA staff said. “Our animals never once needed to be at risk with the water, the second we posted a SOS, you, our very dear community, and those surrounding us came forward.”

The SPCA said the mayor-elect and his family were among the first to “jump in and help,” and a Megan donated more than 70 gallons of water, with help from Tops Supermarket in Bradford. They said Slice of the 80s “boiled dozens of gallons of water for us with no second thought.”

In fact, the SPCA isn’t sure what it would have done if not for “all the families who jumped in and donated their own time and money to make sure the animals had clean water to drink. These were just the beginning of the stream of amazing public support we have had over the last few days.”

“This season of giving we learned that we have a community that is committed to not only supporting us, but uplifting us in the process. The staff shed many tears of gratitude this week; a week that could have been spent in fear for the health of our animals was able to be spent focusing on getting them forever homes.”