Let me set one thing straight. I am not writing this post to brag
about "how awesome I am and how I must be such a good person for helping
those in Oklahoma last week." If you comment on this blog-post, please
refrain from complimenting me - it is unnecessary. I share photos and
stories because I want everyone to see that mankind is good by nature.
Tragedies like May 20, 2013 bring strangers together and no one
discriminates. Here is my experience in a nutshell; I hope these stories
will inspire you.
On Monday evening the tornado hits
and media spreads the devastating news. Jason was working out of town
and called me immediately. "Dana, ask around for people to gather
supplies. I'm coming home tomorrow and we are going to Oklahoma to
help." I get on FB and post a request for supplies. Word spreads to
neighbors and friends at church....then they pass the word to others. By
Tuesday evening, we are in need of a trailer for all the supplies
people donated. Dozens of people went out of their way to donate and I
can't even begin to name them all; but I have to give a special
shout-out to 3 VERY influential people...Keri Jackson, Amy Jackson, and
Jennifer Galek....you ladies are AWESOME!!
Just to give
you an idea of the SOME things that were donated: 10 HUGE black garbage
bags of clothes, cases of water, hundreds of granola bars, crackers
& PB, canned food, baby food, baby formula, 52 MRE's, stuffed
animals, toys & books, blankets, boxes & boxes of every toiletry
you can think of. I visited Home Depot to purchase goods and the store
donated
8 headlamps & 31 pairs of leather work gloves. Jennifer Galek
spread the word to those at her work and raised over $1600 - with
the money she was able to purchase 20 shovels, 21 flashlights, 40
gloves, 20 baseball caps, ~150 pairs of socks, ~80 pairs of underwear,
15 sports bras, 4 blankets, 16 packs of baby wipes, ~360 toothbrushes,
toothpastes, deodorants, lotions, hand sanitizers. (I'm sure that I'm
even forgetting lots of stuff!) She also put together kids' bags to hand
out with coloring books, markers, bubbles & stuffed animals. The
photo below is just a small bit of what we were able to collect and
deliver. The trailer we pulled was completely packed with supplies!!!
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| Just a small sampling of what we collected |
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| We
loaded up the trailer on Wednesday night and headed out the next
morning. The boys "helped" me make the sign for the back of the trailer.
I'll admit, it felt good to have people honking and giving us thumbs up
as we drove down the highway. The support from other drivers just
reinforced that we were about to do something great for others. |
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| When
we got to Moore, this is just some of what we saw. There were
neighborhoods that were completely demolished by the tornado. There was
nothing standing for blocks. Vehicles were tossed around like toy cars
and they landed down the street from where they were picked up. |
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| Trees with a 10 foot base were completely uprooted. |
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| Our
first stop was at a hotel to meet and help the sister of our dear
friend. Meet Marty (pictured with my husband and kids=). Marty and her 2
sons lost their home from the tornado (see photo below). When news of
the upcoming tornado, Marty and her sons rushed to the bathroom, hid in
the tub & covered themselves with a mattress. It is a miracle no one
was hurt. Marty & her sons are in the process of recovering what is
left in their home, but have very little in good condition to keep.
They were able to stay at Life Church for a few nights until their home
insurance paid for a hotel. They have one month in the hotel before they
need to find a new home. Their cars were totaled and with only
liability insurance, they will not be funded for a replacement car.
Marty's niece (a good friend of mine) is raising money for her to
rebuild their lives. If you would like to contribute, follow the link.
=) http://disaster-relief.fundly.com/donations-to-survivors-of-oklahoma-tornado-13 |
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| What is left of Marty's home. |
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| After
meeting up with Marty, we hit the neighborhoods with our trailer of
supplies. We asked every person in sight "What do you need?" Initially,
each person would just wave us on and say that they needed nothing. BUT,
as soon as we started listing all the supplies in the trailer,
inevitably, there was something that interested them....shovels, gloves,
a baseball cap, a granola bar, clean socks and even a new pair of
underwear. You know, people don't mind working in dirty clothes, but
EVERYONE likes a clean pair of underwear!! ;) |
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| Meet
Deena. She lives across the street from Marty and lost her home as
well. Deena ran an in-home daycare and at the time she was taking care
of 6 young children. When the tornado hit, she was huddled over the
children in her closet. 2 cars fell on top of her house, but with the
Lord's mercy, everyone crawled out unharmed. When we met Deena, they had
just removed the 2 cars from her house and she was digging through the
rubble. She didn't get much out - I noticed a highchair, a few toys,
glass bowls & some kitchen pots. It was inspiring to talk to Deena -
despite the circumstances, she was in such good spirits. We later met
one of the children that was in her home at the time - a little 2 year
old girl - we were able to give her one of the kids' bags. Deena's next
door neighbor was not so fortunate. Her neighbor was huddled down with
her teenage son during the storm, but was killed when the tornado hit
the house. |
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| You
wouldn't believe people's gratitude for the things that we delivered.
Everyone was so overwhelmed at Austin's generosity. With the Sooner/Long
Horn rivalry, one man said "Well, the Sooners sure love and appreciate
the Long Horns right now!!" It was interesting to see what people were
most excited to receive. The women wanted a razor more than anything
else. Multiple women explained how they "just wanted to feel like a
woman again." We were also able to give them sports bras and underwear.
Many people will have to replace all of the clothing in their homes
because it got wet and covered in housing insulation (which you
shouldn't wear, even if washed.) One man couldn't stand to leave his
home at night, so he was camping out there each night - we gave him a
much needed lantern and supplies. |
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| While driving around neighborhoods, one man asked if we had any extra shoes in our trailer (he was wearing sandals). I dug through and found a pair of Jason's old tennis shoes that I had thrown in last minute. It was the ONLY pair of men's shoes in the trailer and they were the EXACT shoe size for that man. What a tender mercy of the Lord. By then, we had already given away all of our new socks, so Jason took his socks off and gave them to the man. Yeah, they were probably dirty, but that man didn't care. |
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| This
is Sheri and her family (pictured with myself, husband and my boys).
They completely lost their home from the tornado. We were able to give a
lot of donations to this family. The kids, Braden & Sierra were
thrilled about the kids' bags that Jeni Galek put together and we had
other toys donated from others that they so excited to receive. (There
were a few more children in this family that were not in the
neighborhood at the time; but we left some items for them to take as
well =) Talking to this family really put life into perspective for me.
Of course, losing their home, belongings, and vehicles was devastating;
but they were filled with so much gratitude for their lives. They are
full of optimism and hope for rebuilding their future. Despite their
awful circumstances, they were smiles the whole time we were with them. |
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| I saw this and had to take a photo....oh, the irony. |
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| A community playground nearby. |
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| People can have a sense of humor during crisis....they laugh so they don't cry. |
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| We
spoke to the man that owned this "house" and we were able to give him
the last package of underwear that we had left in our trailer. And man,
was he grateful. |
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| We
were able to be in Moore for part of Memorial Day weekend and we saw
many flags above the rubble. It was both humbling and empowering to see
these flags. The United States is a blessed country and our citizens
will always come together in times of crisis... religion, race,
political party, economic status.....it all goes out the window when a
fellow American needs help. I am so grateful that my family could be a
small part of helping those in Moore. In fact, I felt selfish to be the
lucky person who delivered those supplies and to see the the gratitude
on people's faces. They all asked who we were and I was proud to tell
them that the people of Austin donated these supplies and were praying
for the families in Moore. |
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| It
was hard to understand how one house could be standing unharmed
(missing a few shingles) while the house next door was completely
demolished, along with the rest of the neighborhood. We saw this a lot
throughout the neighborhoods. Crazy. |
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| Throughout
our short time in Moore I expressed many moments of frustration to
Jason. I felt like we weren't making a difference. I kept telling him
that all the little stuff in our trailer was insignificant to what these
people need....they no longer have a home, a bed, furniture, clothing
or those irreplaceable photos. Jason had to remind me many times that
the things we brought were in fact.....PRECIOUS to them. Insurance will
pay for much of what they lost, but we were bringing them hope, love,
and prayers from Austin. Even if someone only needed one item from our
trailer, it meant the world to them. |
|
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| I'm
sorry that I didn't get a photo or the name of this woman, but she was
so brave. With news of the tornado, she was able to hide out in this
storm shelter underground and remain safe (pictured above). The sad part
of her story is that her husband had a broken hip and could not get
down there with her. He had to stay in the home during the storm and is
now hospitalized with more injuries. He will be out of the hospital soon
and be okay, but what a sad story. I couldn't imagine the fear and
helplessness of that wife when she had to leave her husband in the house
during the storm. When we offered supplies to this woman, she didn't
need anything. I gave her a long hug and a stuffed animal. |
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| Throughout
all the neighborhoods, different organizations set up tents with food
and water. This particular group was grilling hot dogs and burgers for
anyone who came by. Many residents spent the days picking through the
remainder of their home and were too busy to seek out food and
water....so volunteers walked through the neighborhoods
pushing shopping carts or dollies filled with food, sandwiches, water
and gatorade. The Wal-Mart parking lot was FILLED with trucks and
outdoor tents....TIDE had set up dozens of washers and dryers in the
parking lot so that victims could wash their clothes for free. One
organization in the parking lot had 20,000 burgers they were grilling
with chips and drinks - free to anyone. When we walked in the wal-mart
store, the aisles were absolutely packed with pallets of products and
racks and racks of clothes - I would be surprised if you could fit a
cart down some aisles! We heard Home Depot was allowing victims to come
get supplies that they needed free of cost. No matter where we went in
Moore, people were helping and were kind to one another- it was a
humbling experience. |
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| When
we stopped at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an empty
semi truck was parked in the parking lot and had just delivered a full
trailer of work supplies.....chainsaws, wheel barrows, gloves, rakes,
shovels, water, hygiene kits, work shirts generators, sleeping cots,
propane tanks, etc, etc. Later that weekend, volunteers were able to do
some amazing work with those supplies. Follow this link for more
details. http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mormonism-in-pictures-oklahoma-tornado-cleanup |
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| On
our drive out of Moore, we followed this rainbow. The tornado victims
have a long road of building ahead of them, but here's some hope for the
people of Oklahoma. |
At
the end of our trip, we still had some clothes and some supplies left.
We stopped at a hotel and left toiletries, coloring books, markers &
bubbles in the front lobby. Many parents didn't take their kids back to
the houses and we had no other way to contact them. The lady at the
front desk told me there were at least 20 children in the hotel who had
lost their homes - and I'm sure they were thrilled to receive those
toys. We left the remaining clothes with some friends in Moore. Those
clothes have been organized and set aside for a few specific families
who lost their homes....one single mother with 8 children and another
family with 4 children.
At first, I was overwhelmed at
the thought of bringing our 3 year old twin boys and our 1 year old boy
to Oklahoma with us. But, as we gathered donations, and saw the
excitement from the twins, there was no way we could leave them. This
was an experience that they will never forget and a lesson that I could
never teach from a book. It was a harsh reality for them to see these
homes and talk to the kids who lost everything; but it was also
heart-softening for them. Jason and I watched as Arlo & Josiah gave
hugs to the kids and were so excited to give the children toys. My children learned, first hand, sympathy and compassion for others.
Thank you to all who gave. Your donations were gratefully received. Please continue praying for Moore.
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