On Saturday, April 9th our small Iowa communities were hit by 4 tornadoes. After spending some time in the basement praying I came to the surface to see my home was fine. As the reports started to come in I have been overwhelmed by the feeling of SO BLESSED. We had some wind damage and lost our old windmill, but other than about an hour without power my home was intact and my family was safe. However, others just miles away were not so lucky. Many have been completely devastated. With so much to be cleaned up our school decided to join the effort to help the farmers clean up.
On Wednesday more than 1100 students, teachers and other volunteers joined the effort to help with the clean up. At noon those volunteers headed to the Nemaha Fire Station to join in some food and fellowship. It was amazing to hear the stories from the students over lunch of what they have found. I heard from many of the families about how amazing it was to see busloads of kids cleaning up the fields and farms. Many stating that they couldn't have planted the fields until it was picked up. We all knew that it couldn't have been done without a HUGE effort. It's true what they say, many hands make for light work. We had such a great day that we were able to pick up more acres than they had set out to help with. What a great service learning project for these students. All day today the students couldn't help but talk about all of the farmers that they worked with and the things that they had found. I'm so proud of each of them! I'm full of PRIDE tonight to be from such a great community who really knows what it means to come together to help out!
