The Mormon Helping Hands

http://chelseaboo.blogspot.com/2011/06/flood-journal.html
click above to go straight to the Flood Journal post

Many of you may not be aware of what the Mormon Helping Hands are. Well, they are just that. Mormons who put on a yellow tee-shirt and do service! Simple as that. We don't have to have the tee-shirt, but the tee-shirt just makes it official. 

The church feels very strongly about being involved in the community and in serving. In times of disaster, the church comes out full force. This post is just to showcase some of the things that are going on here during our Minot flood disaster. The church as an official entity has sent truckloads of supplies and they have asked a couple who is experienced in organizing disaster relief/cleanup efforts to come here and help us get organized. The church building is now a place to receive/distribute supplies, to take orders of members and nonmembers who need help, a campground for out of town volunteers, and more. 

There are teams of people in charge of going into the homes and assessing what needs to be done and making a list of needed supplies-which is called a work order, there are teams of workers, there are teams that direct the work teams where to go first, next, etc., and it's just a whole lot of teamwork. The church sends us the official Mormon Helping Hands tee-shirts, but it is we as members of the church that are the work force. It is the people of our own community (as well as volunteers from around the area that are coming in) that make up the Mormon Helping Hands. We are here to help not only our members, but the rest of the community in the effort to clean up and recover from this flood.

 This was taken LAST Sunday while things were still getting organized. There were already teams working full force, and here are some of the supplies that are still waiting to be used.

 Again, this was taken last Sunday. This is not the full extent of the supplies. There were already teams out working and this was just taken by me after church.

 And here is the other side of the gym as of last Sunday. It really doesn't look the same with all the inflow and outflow of supplies and equipment.

Many wet/dry shop vacs and the dry filters and some box fans over here.

 I think these buckets are cleaning kits.

 The sign on the Relief Society room door.

Inside the R.S. room. There is a big white board on the left out of the picture with lots of writing and charts. It's all very organized.

Here is the work order station, in case it wasn't obvious, hehe. The table was empty at this point, but I don't think it's always empty. :)

 One of the trucks parked in the lot.

 They've even brought in porta-potties for our camping volunteers. All of the previous photos were from a week ago.

Now we are to the photos I took today after church. There are no tents in the front of the church, but the back is a little tent community.

All of the volunteers that come in need to be completely self sufficient. They have to bring food and water and their own shelter. There are already 12,000 displaced people in town and not many households can take on MORE guests, whether they are volunteer workers or not.

 These people are allowed to come into the church, but for the most part they are gone all day and only come to wash up and eat and then crash. At least that's what I would be doing. Work, wash, eat, crash. Yep. Sounds good.

So how does our tiny church accommodate keeping all these people clean? Well, it can't. So...

 Angel Billings was assigned the task of building outdoor showers.

(these were taken over a week ago-they didn't wait until there was a churchyard full of tents to start building)

 Who's the greatest assistant ever? Autie Beth, of course!

 Rub-a-dub dub!

 I am pretty sure this is Lindsay Williams. There were several youth helpers and Bishop Williams stopped by to check in on things also.

 The showers are officially called the B-K showers, which stands for Billings-Kelly.

 They were planning on making six, but they found materials for five only. So they went with five.

Not too shabby for outdoor showers. They are tapped into the water from inside, so the first showerers get warm water. There are also stations set up to wash boots and gloves and such outside without mucking up the inside of the church.

So there you have it. We have people from Bismarck, Fargo, Rapid City, and other places, even some Canadians. The missionaries have come in full force also. We have teams out seven days a week. We have many work orders, and will keep it up until the work is all done. There has been much progress made, but the end is far from in sight. 

Just keep cleaning, just keep cleaning...