Advertisement The next day, Tim Adamson, the leader of a group of volunteers called Hearts and Hammers, came up with the idea to send tents.
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Members of Hearts and Hammers Jean Gabrielson, Gordon and
Pauline Van Dunk, all of Holmen, bind ropes to be used to put
up tents the group shipped to Haiti.
Contributed photos |
“I knew where there were tents not being used,” Adamson said. “I called Steve Freehill, camp ranger at Camp Ehawee, at 10 p.m. to see if we could use them. He gave me 15 tents. It just blossomed from there.”
Julie Wanke, who lives in Holmen, said she got involved in the group because her parents were involved and the mission of the group resonated with her.
“We had a meeting right after the earthquake,” Wanke said. “Tim said he knew about a tent and an idea grew. It’s phenomenal. Tim said the words faith and trust and that’s what keeps us going.”
The core of the membership of Hearts and Hammers is based in the Mindoro-Lewis Valley Lutheran churches, but the volunteers come from different churches, faiths and communities.
Many in the group are actual building contractors. They first organized in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and made five trips to the stricken area. Their second mission took them to Fargo, N.D., when the spring 2008 floods struck. They also went to Fond du Lac to help muck out flooded homes there.
Steve Gabrielson’s Farmington home was flooded Jan. 29, not with water or mud, but with tents and people after he volunteered his heated shed as “tent central.” The initial 15-plus tents donated by Gene Averhoff, vice president of the Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois, were just the tip of the iceberg. After word of the mission started to spread, Hearts and Hammers volunteers had amassed more than 450 temporary tents. They had to buy materials and equipment and poles to make them usable as desperately needed shelters.
They even collected mallets to send with so people had something with which to pound in the stakes. The tents were donated by Girl Scout groups in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota.
“This is great,” Gabrielson said. “I am so proud to be part of this group. With just a little bit of time and effort, 1,500 people will have a roof over their heads. That’s a big impact.”
Gabrielson’s heated shed was the scene of three days of hectic activity where volunteers cut 10,000 feet of donated new nylon rope into 10-foot lengths and burned the ends so they wouldn’t fray and then shrink wrapped the number of ropes needed per tent.
Other volunteers cut tent stakes, others folded tents. Still others built shipping crates. The tents are all in good condition and will arrive in Haiti ready for setting up.
Friday’s lunch time was dominated by the question of how to help the Presbyterian Church and get a shipment to Indiana by Tuesday.
By 5 p.m. Friday afternoon, a truck from West Salem-based Hot Line Freight was being loaded to go to Indiana by Tuesday and scheduled to arrive in Haiti on Wednesday.
They loaded 161 tents, 20 flies, extra tarps, 15 extra rebar sets (12 per set), hammers and mallets.
In addition, at the last minute the Bangor Kiwanis Club donated 600 bars of soap, which along with hand towels, quilts, baby clothes and stuffed animals for the children, were stuffed into the crates.
The load taken by Hot Line Freight is being directed toward a mission group run by the First Presbyterian Church in La Crosse. The Presbyterian Church group is able to receive donations through Harvest International.
Rod and Deb Wray have a mission in Les Cayes, Haiti, a town of about 400 located about 15 miles away from the center of the disaster in Port au Prince. According to Adamson, the Wrays heard about the tents from Holmen and told him more than 80,000 people had migrated to the small mission and they were in desperate need of supplies.
The remainder of the assembled tents, nearly 300, were to be delivered Wednesday to St. Paul for distribution to World Wide Village.
Badger Corrugated of La Crosse has donated the transportation of that shipment to a warehouse from where they will be transported to Haiti. The flight taking the tents to Haiti is donated by Agape Flights, which according to their Web site “is flying often and able to land in Port au Prince.”
Tim Carrier, who lives in the town of Onalaska, has been a volunteer with Hearts and Hammers for four years. “It’s an honor and a privilege to be with this group,” he said.
Carrier went with the group to Mississippi. “I felt so thrilled inside because of the suffering of the people and that I could do something about it. I’ve got the same thrill working on this project.”
The youngest of the group assembled Friday, 27-year-old Luke Anderson, said he got involved with the group for the camaraderie and being able to do something about the devastation in Haiti.
“It’s really gratifying to see something happen,” Anderson said. He took a couple days off from his job to help.
While the work was physically demanding, no one seemed to notice. “To me, it lets me put my faith into action,” said Pauline Van Dunk, who lives in the town of Holland. “I’m not always doing that. This group lets me do that. There are no obstacles for this group. It’s physically demanding, but I have energy.”
Even knowing how important the work of the group is to the people of Haiti, Adamson isn’t satisfied. “No, I don’t feel satisfied by the work because there is so much more that is needed.”
The tents are heading out, but the group is faced with paying for all the supporting equipment and materials they had to buy. Adamson estimated the total cost about $25 to $30 per tent. The Hearts and Hammers account with the Mindoro church was depleted and some members started donating their own funds, but bills remain.
The group is very aware that the challenges the Haitian people face will continue for months if not years, so they are already thinking about another shipment, and they are getting calls from Scout troops all over the Midwest wanting to donate tents. But the group wants to rest a bit and replenish their account before they even talk about round two of tent shipments.
Anyone interested in donating to the group can send a check to Hearts and Hammers, in care of Mindoro-Lewis Valley Lutheran Church.
