A Simple Dinner Helps So Many
Members of New Sharon Fire serve dinner on Saturday evening for their Disaster Relief Dinner.
New Sharon, Iowa – Laughter, friendship, and food, seems like a great time among friends.
New Sharon Fire held their annual disaster relief dinner on Saturday evening. The boot at the end of the table held the donations not only for dinner, but money that will find its way to strangers during the worst times of their lives.
New Sharon Fire started its mission to help fellow first responders in need back when Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast back in 2005.
The team left with clothes and a dream of helping others. A month later they returned to Iowa, wiser, and more prepared to help out the next time.
Help out they did. Beyond the calls for help in Iowa, which included the EF 5 tornado that destroyed Parkersburg (May 2008), the group traveled to Joplin, Missouri helping to recover those lost to the violent EF 5 tornado there in July of 2011.
In 2012, the crew once again answered the call for help when Superstorm Sandy slammed into the eastern seaboard of the United States. They spent weeks there helping retired firefighters and others recover from the devastation.
The next year (2013), the group was back in the thick of it all, helping out after one of the largest and most dangerous tornadoes on record tried to scour away Moore, Oklahoma.
The call for help has been heard around the nation, and they traveled to Louisiana after historic flooding impacted the people of Independence and Baton Rouge in 2016.
Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas coast in 2017, and they once again responded to the call for help. They were using their expertise of a decade of service in natural disaster zones.
2018 proved to be Iowa’s turn, and the crew from New Sharon was there to help their neighbors, especially those in Pella and Marshalltown.
The team wasn’t done for the year yet. Fellow first responders in North Carolina needed help to recover from Hurricane Florence when it impacted former first responders living in that area.
There was one more call for help in 2018, and New Sharon Fire responded to Port St. Joe in Florida after Hurricane Michael.
This past April, the group went to Fremont, Nebraska to help those residents after historic flooding impacted that state.
Donations from the supper and other fundraising allowed the group to reach out, in person, and not only help first responders in natural disaster zones recover, but they were also able to be a shoulder to cry on.
The supper allows the firefighters from New Sharon Fire to reconnect with those who help support them and their mission.
“This is a good night for us,” said New Sharon Fire Chief Josh Crouse. “Not only do we get to bring the community into our fire station, show them around, and show them the equipment that we use. We also get to feed them and show them the appreciation for the donation funds that come in, that enable us to be able to go out on these disaster trips.”
When responding to disasters, the group has the expense of fuel, and food if it’s not donated while on scene. There is also machinery rentals, such as skid-steers, to help multiply the manpower available in cleaning up debris.
Crouse is the second Fire Chief who has found the calling of helping other first responders during a time of need.
Former Chief Steve Gerard lead that first mission to Biloxi, and he still serves on the fire department as a captain and helps to lead recovery missions to this day.
Crouse went on his first mission in 2016 to Louisiana, and then to Rockport, Texas the next year.
“It’s just a good feeling to go out somewhere and help the community that was just completely wiped out,” Crouse said of the relief missions. “During these disasters, the local first responders are oftentimes working 24 hours a day nonstop, and multiple days at a time, leaving behind their homes that may be completely torn apart.”
Those first responders may not know what the condition of their home is until things have settled down. “So for us to be able to go in and help the first responders, dispatchers, it’s a good feeling.”
