In the early hours of Saturday, December 11, a large EF-3 tornado moved across Bowling Green, Kentucky, with estimated wind speeds of 155 miles per hour. Widespread destruction was reported across the city, with over 500 homes and 100 businesses damaged or destroyed.
On Friday, December 17, DSC’s Dale Hill took a semi load of donations (non-perishable food items, cleaning supplies, bottled water, diapers, toilet paper, rakes/shovels, and other useful items) that poured in from all over the state to Bowling Green with an official send off with lights and sirens from Clear Lake’s ambulance, fire, and police departments for the 11-hour drive. Before taking off, many DSC employees and community volunteers helped load and package the donations onto pallets. Over $10,000 in cash donations came in via Venmo, which Dale says all went to buying toys for Christmas for the kids in the affected community. Walmart in Mason City and Larson’s Mercantile in Clear Lake gave discounts and even chipped in with their own donations as volunteers were purchasing the toys for the semi.
Upon arrival in Bowling Green, 112 people were onsite at a school to help unload the semi. A new school had been built recently, so conveniently this old school was now being used as a distribution site to hold the donations. Individual classrooms had been designated for certain items so the volunteers knew exactly where to place the
donations coming off of the semi load. The entire gym floor was filled with water and Gatorade donations. Families who had lost their homes had been placed in hotels and shelters throughout the area, and could get supplies from the school as needed.
Dale said he spoke with a few of the people who were affected, and he took away a sense of a tight-knit community that were grateful to still have each other despite no longer having homes/any belongings. His daughter and her boyfriend accompanied him on the trip. Tony’s Tire, Truck, & Towing donated the use of the semi.