Freeborn County experienced substantial flooding several weeks ago. Many area homes were impacted in significant ways — and there were long-term concerns about mold and other health concerns.

We were very grateful to work with local officials to engage the MN Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster teams as well as local volunteers in helping to clean out basements and haul debris from over 30 homes throughout Freeborn County.

The teams were called to action by Dan Hoeft of Bridge to Recovery, who served as the project manager while we helped assign them and communicate with homeowners. We would like to recognize the groups who contributed their time over the long weekend:

• Bridge to Recovery

• Catholic United Response

• Christian Aid Ministries

• International Orthodox Christian Charities

• Seventh-day Adventists

• Traveling Angels

• Tzu Chi Foundation

• United Methodist Corps

• All of the local volunteers who came out to help their neighbors and who brought their trucks to help haul items to the transfer station.

We would also like to thank Domino’s for stepping up quickly to provide lunch for the crews on Saturday — they needed the extra energy! Thank you to The Salvation Army and Freeborn County for helping to provide supplies for the volunteers.

And a final big thank you to United Methodist Church for hosting the crews while they were in town, allowing use of the parking lot to organize and store trailers and hosting the Multi-Agency Resource Center site that the Red Cross set up to identify additional needs.

Not all projects were able to be completed and several more were added to the list after the MARC event last week. If you are able to help, please contact the United Way at 373-8670.

Ann Austin

executive director

United Way of Freeborn County