ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The wildfires that raged through the area last Tuesday have affected many individuals and families in the area, and multiple entities are stepping up to help.
One of those partnerships was between Trinity Faith Church and Convoy of Hope, which Trinity Faith Church Pastor Aaron Koehn said came about very quickly.
“On Pancake Day, I was at Trinity Faith Church with the KJIL radio station, which I work as a second job, and I saw the plumes of smoke from the wildfires, and I knew it was going to be major,” Koehn said. “I started hearing the reports of the fires coming in, and that night we opened the church up and let people come in from Turpin, Okla. and Tyrone, Okla. if they needed to evacuate, and I know there were a few other places in town that did the same thing. When I went to bed that night, I just kept thinking ‘There’s got to be something we can do for these people,’ because all the reports were pouring in about people losing their homes and livestock and farmland and everything else. The next morning, I got in touch with people at Convoy of Hope, told them what was going on with the fires and everything and how there were so many people being affected by these fires. I told them we were willing to be a hub for them if they happened to bring a truck through with supplies and other necessities for people in this area, and it was about an hour after that initial phone call when they called me back and said a truck was on the way, which was exciting and somewhat nerve-wracking because then I needed to make a bunch of calls to ensure a crew would be here to help unload the truck and then help load the civilian trucks up with those supplies. There are still firefighters out working, and there are a bunch of people who need help who don’t know where to go, and I thought this would be a great chance to step up. I shared a statement on our social media pages, and the Liberal Ministerial Alliance also helped me get in touch with other people to help spread the word and figure out where the greatest need was. We are here to help anyone and everyone who’s been affected by these fires.”
Local radio station KSCB-The Legend also set up a donation drive to help people affected by the fires, and station employees Erin Atchley and Joe Denoyer said it was a relatively easy decision to want to help.
“There are a lot of people in our area we’ve noticed who are already doing donation drives, and for us, we talked about wanting to use our platform to help support their efforts. Our goal is to be collaborative and help connect those donations to the people who need it,” Atchley said. “There are all the fires in Beaver County and Texas County and even Seward County, and for us, it was, the question was how can we use our donations and get those connected to the right places? And in radio, we have that ability to help spread the word quickly. And so if we can use our platform to help support those efforts and get that word out quickly, then that’s what we want to do. Our focus is for the firefighters, but also for the families who have lost their home or have been affected. With the firefighters, we’re asking for bottled water, sports drinks, electrolyte drinks, eye drops, baby wipes, Chapstick, high-protein snacks, grab-and-go snacks, etc. And then essential things for families include hygiene products, non-perishable foods, and I think another big thing would be grocery cards, Walmart gift cards, and restaurant cards, because these people are trying to go through and process everything they’ve lost, so I think giving them a monetary donation or gift cards will be able to help them when they start to realize what they need to replace.”
“We also were getting phone calls and messages saying, ‘We want to donate, but we don’t know where to donate to,’ so then we decided, why not at the radio station? Then, we can take those donations and then divide them amongst the agencies like the Tyrone Fire Department, the volunteer fire departments in Beaver County, and the departments in Seward County,” Denoyer said. “When people want to help with situations like this, they look to us sometimes. We live in a giving area and people wanted to help so we decided to make it simple for them by having them drop off donations at the radio station, and then we can get with those agencies, see what they need, and have them come and get their stuff, or we can take it to them if we need to. In terms of donations, we don’t have a timeline – as long as donations come in, we’ll take them out. We’ve already got some donations already coming in, and we’ll be in touch with the different agencies we have already been in touch with, and get those donations to where they need to go. We’ve actually talked about continually taking donations and maybe setting up a relief closet at the radio station to where, if there’s a major catastrophe, and if we had things ready to go, we could respond immediately. Like I said, haven’t determined if that’s where we want to go just yet, but I think if we are able to do that, it would be a big help, because we could have it available without having to wait or go by.”
Koehn said it was very moving to see the volunteer efforts at the church Thursday morning.
“It made me feel really good because again, we really just want to help out this community however we can. My heart was absolutely breaking hearing all the reports coming in, and we want to make sure the help gets where it needs to go,” Koehn said. “Convoy of Hope has been great, they were in constant contact with me from when the semi started being loaded through when it officially got on the road from headquarters. The driver got here in the wee hours of the morning and even slept in his truck, so he’s got a heart of gold. Convoy of Hope is a well oiled operation, we could not have done this without their help. It was amazing Thursday to see all the people who care about others, and there have been multiple other pastors and other people I’ve never met who just have servant hearts and want to help everyone around them as much as possible.”
Koehn, Atchley and Denoyer said it is a good feeling being part of the relief efforts.
“Liberal is an amazing community, it always has been. When tragedy strikes, Liberal is great about standing up and taking care of its own as well as its neighbors, and that’s been shown in multiple situations like the Perryton, Texas tornado and now these wildfires,” Koehn said. “It’s so, so evident how much everyone cares about one another here, and it’s wonderful to see.”
“I think as a radio station, it’s our duty – we provide the news and we provide entertainment, but this is our community, and so like I said, since we have the ability to reach people, and quickly, I think it’s, it’s part of our responsibility to help,” Atchley said. “If you’re able to donate items, we encourage it, and we welcome and we thank the community for that. It’s a huge sacrifice, and I think some who maybe aren’t in the position to be able to help in a big way, there are still things they can do, even by just helping spread the word, getting on Facebook and sharing flyers and donation requests and other information we share. There are different ways to donate, and there are different resources out there we want to make sure we can get out there. There was one woman I spoke with who is in charge of the Orphan Calf Relief Program who is helping those ranchers and those farmers who are in need. Everybody can do something.”
“And as far back as I can remember. KSCB-The Legend has always been there helping our neighbors, and our neighbors know that they can count on us – going back to Greensburg when they went through the tornadoes, SportsGuys raised more than $110,000 in less than a week just by getting the word out,” Denoyer added. “We had no sooner shared our wildfire donation drive on social media and on the radio, and donations started coming in almost immediately. We have a very giving community. People are looking to somehow, some way, help, and if they can use us as a tool to do that, we’re more than happy to help. We live in a great part of the country. We live in an area where neighbors appreciate and help neighbors. Every time there’s a need, there is somebody there stepping up to fill that gap. You’re not going to find that anywhere else but right here, where we live, and we’re very appreciative of all those that go out of their way to help someone a little less fortunate than themselves.”
