New Sharon Based Group Continues To Find Ways To Help

New Sharon Fire Captain Steve Gerard helps distribute toys in Dulac, Louisiana this past week.

December 27th, 2021

Montegut, Louisiana – The idea was simple: help put smiles on kids’ faces at Christmas time.

After Hurricane Katrina, firefighters from New York showered the kids of Biloxi, Mississippi, with toys, helping make a bad situation better that year for many of the youngest victims.

So with the recent destruction from tornadoes in Kentucky, members of the non-profit First Responders First remembered that lesson from all those years ago.

First Responders First are past and present members of the New Sharon Fire Department and Biloxi Fire. Members also come from other first responder organizations.

The Hope Chapel in Montegut, Louisiana was busy as toys were offloaded this past week.

A drive to help deliver toys to those in Kentucky began, and as the project progressed, they learned of the situation still underway in Louisiana.

For several days, groups in Biloxi, Mississippi, and here in New Sharon and Oskaloosa, Iowa, collected toys and gift cards from donors.

Last Monday morning, they loaded all those toys up into trucks, trailers. They drove through the night, stopping at a familiar fire station in Independence, Louisiana, just after 2 am to rest for a few hours.

By 6 am, they were back on the road and headed for Montegut, Louisiana, an unincorporated community in the bayou.

A truckload of toys was delivered to Kentucky to help kids there enjoy Christmas.

Another group had just delivered enough toys to Kentucky to fill an auditorium.

In Montegut, people still live in tents and struggle to recover from the second most destructive hurricane to make landfall in the United States.

Fatigue went away as Steve Gerard and Verlan Van Wyk opened up the trailer filled with donations from Iowa. Parked next to them was a box truck filled to the ceiling from Biloxi, Mississippi.

Volunteers at the host church Hope Chapel helped haul in toys, lining the tables in several large rooms at the church with toys for kids of all ages.

The hope had been to watch the kids pick their toys out, but that would have to wait, as students remained in school due to missing so many days after the storm.

“This is wonderful,” said Bonnie Bourg of Hope Chapel.

A New Sharon Fire Department truck in Louisiana this past week.

Bourg helped share how the community is struggling to get cleaned up and find places for people to live.

Homes are still covered in blue tarps, with gutted interiors and people living in those conditions.

Those kinds of conditions make it even more special that individuals from The Good Shepard Lutheran Church in Knoxville, Iowa, donated 50 hand-made quilts to help keep people warm at night.

With one church filled with new toys, they moved one bayou over to Dulac, Louisiana, another community struggling to put the pieces back together.

In Dulac, the Anchor Four Square Church was still trying to help the community from their facility, which is an old school that they still rent from the local school district.

The building suffered substantial damage during the storm but still serves meals to locals.

Storm damage in Dulac, Louisiana at the Anchor Four Square Church.

They opened up their doors on Thursday, December 23rd, to share the toys with local kids, who have been attending school longer than expected into the holiday time.

The volunteers stopped at an area restaurant after unloading and setting up all the toys for a quick lunch. The group then shared hugs goodbye before driving back to their respective home towns.

The group that was heading for Biloxi had their truck break down before they could leave the area. They were able to get help and arrived home later that evening.

The group from New Sharon, Iowa, loaded up and started the 19-hour drive home. They eventually stopped to sleep in a hotel north of Memphis, Tennessee after pushing themselves for the past two days.

You can follow the group’s efforts by visiting the New Sharon Fire Department and West End Hose Company Facebook pages.