Local Organizations At Work In Tornado Impact Area
Blessings of Hope (BOH), 500 Becker Road, Leola, is in the business of distributing food and overseeing volunteer labor at disaster sites. Most recently BOH staff members were at work in Campbellsville, Ky., where the organization has a distribution center not far from Bowling Green and Mayfield - both locations hit by a tornado on Dec. 10, 2021.
But it is not the blessings the group is bestowing that BOH founder David Lapp had on his mind several weeks after the crisis when he discussed the response effort. "It's been a real blessing to be able to respond in this way," noted Lapp, who remained in Leola while fellow founder Aaron Fisher traveled to Kentucky, arriving in Campbellsville just about a day after the tornado touched down. "At this time, people want to give."
Lapp said that the devastation left by the 190 mph winds as the tornado cut a 165-mile path through Kentucky met the criteria the organization has set for sending supplies. The first trucks, which arrived in Kentucky at 4 a.m. on Dec. 12, carried water and ready-to-eat foods to bring immediate relief to those affected. According to Lapp, about 80 houses were destroyed in the rural Campbellsville region. Currently, BOH plans to have people on the ground in the area through the end of April.
"At this point, Blessings of Hope is responsible for all incoming donations into the distribution center at Mayfield," Lapp noted, adding that he estimated about 100 truckloads of product were on the ground there in mid-January. "Initially we were sending product from here, but two weeks into this, we saw there was product coming from all over America that needed to be managed," he explained. "We shifted our focus to managing what was coming in and managing the distribution in Mayfield and the surrounding area." Lapp described churches that were stuffing buses with anything they could send, including clothing and toys in addition to food items. He noted that two BOH trucks distribute items from the center to the surrounding communities.
Lapp serves on the board of Plain Compassion Crisis Response, which is based in Intercourse. He said a steady stream of volunteers has been pouring into the area ravaged by the tornado. "They focus more on the cleanup side," said Lapp, who noted about 250 volunteers were being managed per day with 500 to 800 from the Lancaster area having served at the site. He added that soon after the tornado hit, representatives of Bowling Green contacted Plain Compassion to manage all local volunteers. "They were processing up to 900 local applications a day in Bowling Green alone," he said. "(People) want to know if they go there to give that their talents will be utilized and not just wasted," he said.
BOH was founded in 2006 when Lapp and Fisher began using a garage in Farmersville to store and redistribute food that would otherwise have been wasted and that they knew could be used to feed people in Lancaster County and beyond. More information about the ministry may be found at http://www.blessingsofhope.com.
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