A co-worker heard on the radio over and over Thursday morning about the flood in Fargo/Moorhead and how they needed volunteers. She thought she had to do something, so she came to work and asked the boss if it would be okay for her to take Friday off to go up north. They said sure and if you want to bring anyone else with you tell them they need to turn in a request off by noon today. She sent out the email and 2 others heeded the call. I sent out an email to my friends and family asking if they wanted to join me-Margaret was a yes.
So this morning (5:30am!) Margaret met me at our house and we drove to a Clearwater exit. We car-pooled from there with Cari, her daughter, and her daughter's friend. Tamara followed us with her car and had her son and his friend in tow. We arrived at the MSUM around 10am. We got signed in, then they had tables set up with food that you could fill a bag to take with you. Margaret and I headed outside to help sand bag. They had a good system going. We went all the way down to the end because there weren't a lot of people down there. 2 people shoveled, 2 people held bags under orange cones that were upside down in a table. Three shovels full were poured into each bag, then it was tossed off where someone else was tying them off and someone else piled them onto a pallet. After a while we ran out of pallets. They brought in roll-off containers. We formed a train and passed bags from one end the other until the containers where full. When we ran out of those they kept making bags and they were just put into piles everywhere until more pallets or containers were found. I don't know how many dump trucks of sand we went through-but Margaret and I did this for 6 hours!
I am so sore right now, but it was worth every bit. When people would ask if we were local we said no we're from Mpls. They would ask if we had relatives in the area. We said no. They were so happy that people would travel that far just to help them. We weren't the only nice people there - it was MN nice all over the place. Please, thank you, excuse me, sorry, can I help you with that, do you want to switch jobs. Just amazing how everyone could work together. And seeing all the sand bags that were filled was proof that we were working together.
As we drove home we listened to the radio and it didn't sound good. I hope what we did today makes a difference.
1 comment:
It did make a difference, trust me. Last time the river was near this high was when I lived there. I'd go to class, and straight to sandbagging. Weeks of it. It was awful-but I know I personally helped save houses from going under. One was a friend's aunt and uncle, and they threw a thank you party later. They were so organized because they've been there before! I have lots of family up there. Thanks for helping them and their neighbors!
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