Look for the Helpers

I took another unplanned newsletter hiatus. This one was different though. It wasn't about time or schedule or life getting in the way. I had Newsletter time on my calendar and could easily have produced newsletters these last few weeks.

It also wasn't because I didn't have an idea. It was, in fact, the opposite of that. I had an idea and it felt selfish to tell it. I’m not sure why - it’s not about me at all. There is a part of me that feels that if you don’t personally experience tragedy, you don’t get to tell the story. But, as anyone who has ever gotten an idea stuck in their head knows, that idea has to have a way out. So, here is my best effort.

August is always a particularly busy month. It can (and did, yet again) go by in such a whirlwind that it's hard to pay attention to all the things. Gayle started her fourth year at Butler University. I had three out-of-state, multi-night work trips. And, we had all the normal things that happen in adult life - the AC broke down, my beloved car (Kate) has communicated that it's time for a replacement, and we need tree work (is anything more adult than needing tree work?). And that's just a small slice of the normal life stuff that happened in August.

But the story that sticks with me is the one from mother nature. Amidst all of the normal August whirlwind, we also had the completely abnormal occurrence of a 1000 year flood event surrounding our home here in Noblesville, Indiana. And, not just our home city. A huge swath of Indiana that included my hometown. Here is a graphic from the nightly news on August 6. New Castle is where my niece works at the local hospital. Muncie is where I went to college and where many friends still live.

Noblesville was hit incredibly hard. This photo is of a Kroger grocery and apartment complex that is exactly 4.8 miles from our house.

We were surrounded by water. Dangerous water that did historic and incredible damage to homes and property. Damage that, for most people and places, insurance won't cover. We were personally completely unscathed. We are incredibly lucky and just trying to do what we can to help those impacted. And, for that, I am going to focus on a little town that's near to my heart.

My little hometown of Williamsburg, Indiana - an unincorporated village of about 350 people - is still grappling with the consequences of this historic flood. You can donate to the GoFundMe to support the fire department here to fix pumps damaged by all that work.

It's that little fire department I am going to talk about this week. I grew up with that fire station as my playground. My grandpa helped found the department. My dad was on that department for over 50 years. My brother and my cousin were on that department. That same cousin is back on it as a driver and one of the heroes who operated those pumps for days on end to help their neighbors. It's my mom and dad you see in the top photo. They are standing in front of a brand new fire truck that my mom was able to help arrange purchase of while she was the township trustee and dad was the fire chief.

In my childhood home, the phone rang two ways. The normal ring was calls for us (or my grandparents who lived next door since we were on a party line). The fast ring was a fire call. Most of the time, mom, my sister, or I took the call because dad (and my brother when he served) were out the door, in their cars, taking dispatch on their radios before we finished learning where danger was taking them.

From accident scenes in the middle of the night on the coldest (and slickest) nights of the year to structure fires and arson investigations that brought in fire trucks from around the county (in something called "mutual aid") they ran to help. On other nights, they chased storms or, we opened up the basement of the community center and put out cots for drivers stranded when the snow became too deep.

In small towns like Williamsburg, people jump in and help one another. I can't tell you how may times in the last month I've thought of the quote Mr. Rogers attributes to his mother who would tell her son that when we he was scared to "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping."

We all have to be helpers. We're all called to be helpers. How can you help someone else today or this week? Join the conversation in Circle by clicking the Let's Chat button below or hit reply on this email.

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