The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
Helping Hands volunteers have spent the last two weekends cleaning up after July’s devastating flooding in eastern Kentucky, clearing debris, shoveling mud, mucking out homes, moving furniture, preparing meals and filling many other assigned tasks.
More than 1,000 people from seven stakes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints showed up to help each weekend, coming from central and western Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee and Ohio.
Lexington Kentucky Stake President Glen M. Krebs told local TV station WYMT on Aug. 20: “We’re working all day today, and we’ll work half a day tomorrow, go back to our homes, and another crew of the same size will be back next Friday, work all day Saturday and half a day Sunday.”
The Church members and volunteers brought their own tools and camped in tents in the area, said Columbus Ohio North Stake President Gary C. Mangelson.
“Most of the supplies and most everything that the individuals are using, they’re bringing on their own, and they’re really here to work,” he told the TV station. “They’re going to be working all day today on Saturday and through Sunday as well.”
Stories from the volunteers
Barry Spurlock, a member of the Lexington Kentucky Stake, saw all the preparation and organization that went into the two weekends of heavy labor.
He was inspired as workers came back to the command center to report their efforts and what was completed.
“I saw people coming back in covered from head to toe in flood mud from mucking out from under a house and seeking another assignment to go back out and work some more,” Spurlock said. “I saw women covered in dirt from cutting up trees and visibly tired, yet smiling and laughing and ready to go back out and do more.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
