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An
Open Letter to the people of Bureau County, Illinois regarding Katrina
Relief
from Steve Samet, General Manager, WZOE-AM, Z-98, and WRVY-FM
As soon as it became apparent that hurricane
Katrina was a true disaster, the staff at these radio stations began to
talk about doing something special for the victims – something that
would truly make a difference. It was apparent that shipping non-perishable
goods would be very difficult as many of the roads were closed or impassible.
Also, we’d need a place to receive and distribute the goods once
they arrived. But as the week went on, roads were cleared, and the idea
of getting these life-saving items to the families who needed them seemed
to be more and more feasible. WZOE-AM, WZOE-FM and WRVY-FM (the Central
Radio Group Stations) teamed up with Scott Brothers Insurance, Browning
Ford Lincoln Mercury, Purdy Brothers Trucking, the City of Princeton,
Sullivan’s Foods and Princeton Graphics to form an alliance in order
to, simply, get the job done. At 3:30 on the morning of September 8th,
we began the set-op of an On Location broadcast in the Sullivan’s
Foods parking lot. The semi trailer which would eventually go to Mississippi
had been set up the night before by Purdy Brothers Trucking. When I looked
into that trailer for the first time, it was like looking into the Grand
Canyon. How would we ever going to fill it up with the right items? The
population or Princeton, WZOE’s city of license, Princeton, IL,
is only 7,500 and Bureau County is only 40,000…perhaps the project
had been too ambitious. We didn’t know at that point. What we did
know about was the historical good will of the people who live here. We
had faith that we could do this if we all worked together, and so we began.
WZOE-AM
took to the air at 6:30AM on the morning of September 8th from the Sullivan’s
parking lot in a 2 day marathon broadcast. All except essential regular
programming was suspended to accommodate the broadcast. At 6:35AM, the
first contribution arrived – personal hygiene and grooming items
from Colleen Sissel, a local beautician. By 10AM, the parking lot around
the broadcast tent and the semi trailer was covered with items generously
contributed by the people of Bureau County. Now a second problem arose:
How were we going to sort and palletize everything? No one had given thought
to that! But then (and this was one of several “little miracles”
that occurred,) the office staffs of our “alliance” companies
along with other volunteers appeared and quietly, efficiently went to
work organizing everything. And the people and their gifts kept coming.
In the two days of the broadcast, we filled not one, but two semis with
new, appropriate relief items, food and water.
We
can never recognize each of the thousands of people who made this happen
on an individual basis, but here are a few examples of true generosity:
The Princeton Fire Department not only set up their huge ladder truck
to help attract attention, but they spent thousands of dollars from a
special fund to buy supplies to be loaded on the truck going to MS; the
employees of Perry Memorial Hospital generously gave many new items, food
and medical supplies mostly for infants and children; Purdy Brothers donated
the truck, and the driver of the truck, Denny Frank, refused to let us
compensate him for his services. The management of MTM Recognition, upon
finding out that its employees were going to be giving generously, set
up a matching fund. Ag View FS contributed the diesel fuel for the trip.
A young man, obviously unemployed, said he’d walked over to our
location, and that he wanted to do what he could. He slipped some cash
into my hand and said that it was all he had, but he hoped it would help.
When he left, I looked – it was $3. Yes, it helped. Everything helped.
When
lunch time came on the first day, we realized that we had not made acceptable
eating arrangements for the volunteers, and were about to go for fast
food, when Ron Bohnsack and the crew from Sullivan’s Foods wheeled
out a huge grill and cooked lunch (on both days) for everyone…volunteers
and contributors alike. On day 1, late in the day, a pickup truck drove
up to our site. In the back were two little boys and many, many items
to put on the Mississippi bound truck. It took several of us to help unload.
When the task was completed, we thanked their dad who told us that it
was really the boys who should be thanked because they had been saving
up for a big vacation with their family. When they heard our appeal on
the radio, they broke into their piggy banks, and came up all their carefully
saved cash. Over $200. They spent every cent of it on the items we had
just unloaded. Yes, we did thank the boys. Their selflessness was typical
of many of the young people who helped make this a success. By the way,
the boys will still get to take their trip as mom and dad plan to make
them whole, but they didn’t know that at the time.
On
the following Tuesday (September 14th), we left for Jackson, Mississippi.
The first Purdy Brothers truck left the previous afternoon. Our mission
was to be certain that the donated items found their way to people who
truly needed them. We had found a church in Jackson, MS – The Christ
United Methodist Church – that had agreed to receive and distribute
our supplies to the people who needed them most. The government could
have taken a lesson from this church in its efficiency and caring. They
gave us an appointment to be sure that there would be enough volunteers
to unload the truck on a timely basis. Everything was done by volunteers.
Only ten days earlier, the church began operating its distribution center
in its basement. On the day we made our appointment, it had moved to an
abandoned Winn Dixie distribution center. We were headed there to supervise
the unloading process when we got a call from Norm Anderson, the Purdy
Brothers terminal manager in Princeton. The church had called him and
asked us to divert the truck to a town about 25 miles from the Gulf of
Mexico where the supplies were urgently needed. Ron said we could do that,
and so we did.
The
trip had been relatively uneventful until we got diverted at Jackson.
We were to go to Poplarville, MS (our new destination) by way of Hattiesburg,
MS. The road to Hattiesburg was not an Interstate, but a four lane state
highway with 60 foot trees, snapped like twigs by Katrina, cleared and
piled in the median. As soon as we got on the highway, we stopped to top
off the tank. We met a delightful gentleman also filling up at the gas
station. He was a retired television reporter in the Jackson market. He
told us that the road ahead was open, but that it would be difficult.
He asked what we were doing, and when he found out, he gave me his cell
number and said that if we ran into any trouble at all we were to call
him, and he and as many others as it took would come to our aid. He was
typical of everyone we met. What wonderful people. Upon leaving the gas
station we immediately ran into bugs. Millions and millions of bugs stirred
up by Katrina. They were big enough that they actually sounded like rain
when they hit the car. We had to stop to scrape them off the windshield
so that we could see. Finally, we made it to Hattiesburg, MS which was
right in the middle of Katrina’s path of destruction. One gas station
was open, and we topped off again. Only regular grade gas was available,
though. My car takes premium. There’s a stern warning in the owner’s
manual about not using anything but premium, but hey, I had the TV guy’s
cell number – I filled up. Then another discovery: there was no
electronic communication, so there was no using a credit card. Cash only.
That explained the unusually large numbers of people we had seen at the
local banks. They were getting cash.
About
45 minutes later we arrived at our destination, Poplarville, a lovely
little town in far southern Mississippi. We arrived right in back of our
semi! It was the first time we’d seen it since leaving Princeton
and it was a good sight to see. The relief distribution center was located
at the Pearl River County Fairgrounds just west of Poplarville. It was
a secure, fenced in facility currently being run by a unit of the Ohio
National Guard. I can’t say enough about the people from the Guard.
No breeze, 100 degrees in the shade and dust and devastation everywhere,
yet never a complaint from these young men and women. Their commanders
should be very proud of them. I was. The Guard went straight to the work
of unloading our truck. Denny Frank and his dad, who came along to keep
his son company, assisted. The items that were offloaded were used immediately.
The people at the church in Jackson did not exaggerate: these people needed
the help that we had on that truck! Our truck was offloaded at the end
of a long building where deliveries went in one end, were sorted, and
then were distributed at the opposite end. Fortunately, our items were
pre-sorted by our volunteers, and were moved immediately to the distribution
area. Within hours, everything we had brought was in the hands of people
who needed it. I should mention that the Salvation Army was there, too,
cooking food for the volunteers in all that heat. The woman who was in
charge of the distribution wanted to feed us, but we declined thinking
that the people who lived there probably needed it more that we did. Surely
they did.
We
had to get back to Jackson that night or we would have no place to stay.
We thought we’d take a “shortcut” and go south to Interstate
12, then west to Interstate 55 and north to Jackson. A few miles more
than going back through Hattiesburg maybe, but surely much faster. Wrong.
I-12 runs just north of New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain. In contrast
to the open highways we had experienced on the trip down, I-12 was like
the Dan Ryan at rush hour. Traffic moving at 15 miles an hour, no police,
no emergency vehicles. And even worse, every few hundred feet, there were
disabled vehicles with their occupants living in them under tarps no doubt
contributed by a passing Good Samaritan. It would not have been a good
place to have an accident or to become sick. Hours later we arrived back
in Jackson only to find that there were no rooms available. We got a room,
though. I still can’t figure it out – how we got that room.
It was just one more unexplainable event.
You
have warmed our hearts, Bureau County. This is a great place to live,
work and raise a family because of you. We will never know the people
we helped, but they are real – as real as are we. They are our neighbors
and they deserved whatever kindness we could give them. They can not thank
us personally, but they would if it were possible – everyone in
Poplarville thanked us and asked to have their thanks passed along to
you – and that is what I am doing now.
This
was not a solely radio station project. The project and what it accomplished
was from all of us. By doing this, you have made this world a little better
place to live. From me to you: thank you so very much for everything you’ve
done. I am proud to be your neighbor.
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