Boots on the Ground Thomson, MN Flood 2012: Christian Aid Ministries Volunteers

Many hands make short work

These folks make piles go away

Boots on the ground

Pete's stuga 

Lunch at town hall everyday till its gone

Boots and hats off for lunch

Hauling endless stuff to the piles on the street

I have alluded to the help we have had from the Christian Aid Ministries Disaster relief team.  These folks brought in around 20-30 people from all over the midwest.  They are Mennonite and Amish followers of Christ.   Without their help, we would still be swimming in debris, there is no doubt about it.  The double rub with a small community like Thomson is that most folks dont have the choice to not work.  That said, many folks were either cleaning at night when off shift or were coming in on off days when they had time.  Because of that there were maybe only 4-5 people who were around full time to coordinate and also lend a hand in the actual cleaning process.  The Christian volunteers filled that gap and it made a huge difference for our town.  So many, many thanks to those folks.

I have had a few fun interactions with some of the volunteers, from Slyvan and the bike to watching as Pete Koski showed off his beer drinking glass. Which as you can imagine was not something an Amish kid most likely had been exposed to.  Later when Koski was relating that he had hand dug his basement I muttered that I could not relate to that at all....however all the Amish kids laughed and said they certainly could!