Hundreds of volunteers drove out to the Kirkland Community Fire District station this weekend to help residents in Ogle and DeKalb counties whose lives have been affected by the tornado that touched down on Thursday.
According to the Village of Kirkland website showing Fast Facts from Weather.gov, “eight tornadoes have been confirmed across Illinois: four in north central Illinois in the NWS Chicago County Warning Area (CWA), two in northwest Illinois in the NWS Quad Cities CWA, and two in central Illinois in the NWS Lincoln CWA. The strongest tornado was a long track one from near Franklin Grove (Lee County) to north of Rochelle (Ogle County) and through Fairdale (DeKalb County) and into Boone County. This has been given a preliminary rating of an EF-4 with maximum winds of 180 to 200 miles per hour. This tornado caused two fatalities and 22 injuries.”
Operation BBQ Relief, which is based in Pleasant Hill, Missouri, came to the Kirkland fire station this past weekend to cook hot meals for tornado victims, First Responders and volunteers. They started cooking around 8 p.m. on Friday night. As of Sunday, they reportedly served 5,700 hot meals.
“We have been cooking for almost 48 hours straight,” said Carol Stream resident Brian Polak, Operation BBQ Relief Illinois state lead. “We served pork, sausage, chicken, ribs, hot dogs, baked beans, green beans, corn, potatoes and mixed vegetables. We delivered 550 sandwiches to Fairdale residents on Saturday.”
Polak said that Operation BBQ Relief started four years ago after a tornado hit Joplin, Missouri.
“We have been to 23 deployments in 17 states,” Polak said. “We have served a total of 556,000 meals to date. We are all volunteers with no paid salaries. We are a 501 (c) (3) not for profit organization. Our efforts have helped people nationwide.”
The 16 Operation BBQ Relief volunteers who cooked this weekend were: Polak; Bolingbrook residents Bill and Nancy Klimah; Jeff Baldwin of Cary; Greg Redford of Morris; Nick Violette of Tinley Park; Lemont residents Brian Bury and Chris Bloome; Scott Broaddus of Buffalo Grove; Ron, Amy and Kristen Lewen of Batavia; Joe Grossnauser of St. Charles; Poplar Grove residents Patrick and Aaron Dennin, and Sean Young of Oswego.
The Lewens are members of Captain Ron’s Brew-n-Que, a barbecue competition team based in Batavia.
“We have won for Best Barbecue at the Firin’ Up the Fox BBQ Contest & Craft Beer Festival in St. Charles,” Ron said.
Hampshire Trustee Mike Reid Jr.; his wife, Jennifer; and Mike’s parents, Mike and Pat Reid, all decided that they wanted to help the relief efforts for the tornado victims.
Trustee Reid started a monetary and household items donation drive in Hampshire on Friday. Monetary donations were collected by Hampshire Trustee George Brust and his wife, Barbara, at the Hampshire village booth at the Hampshire Area Chamber of Commerce Home & Business Expo on Saturday. Household items were dropped off at the Hampshire Fire Protection District station.
The Reid family prepared pasta salads and cakes to go along with the food prepared by Operation BBQ Relief.
“We baked four sheet cakes, two brownie sheet cakes and four pound cakes,” Pat said. “We also brought condiments.”
“My mom was up all night baking cakes,” Trustee Reid said. “It was amazing how we all got together to get this done.”
Hampshire officials and residents who helped with the tornado relief effort at the Kirkland fire station included: Hampshire Trustee Jan Kraus and her daughter, Jessica; Hampshire Trustee Toby Koth; Hampshire Village Clerk Linda Vasquez; Carol Stigman, Hampshire utility billing and payroll clerk; Hampshire Police Officer Jim Neblock and his family; Wendy Harries and Meg Severa of Fifth Third Bank in Hampshire, and Paul Welden with Community Unit School District 300. They set up picnic tables, cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on grills, and served meals.
Kraus said that Hampshire Trustee Marty Ebert and his family donated cookies, Dunkin’ Donuts in Hampshire donated 12 dozen donuts and coffee, and Casey’s General Store in Hampshire donated ice.
Kirkland resident Jessica Fruit was in charge of sorting the donations at the Kirkland fire station. She said she volunteered nine hours on Friday, twelve hours on Saturday, and eight hours on Sunday.
“There have been three facilities for donations: the Kirkland Community Fire District station, Hiawatha High School in Kirkland, and shelter houses at Franklin Township Park in Kirkland,” Fruit said. “We have had hundreds of volunteers with many of them coming back every day. There have been people on vacation who decided to volunteer. We had two 53-foot trailers filled with clothes and household items.”
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DeKalb County Health Department animal control wardens Dan Berres and Jenny Eisman said that 45 minutes after the tornado touched down, they were in charge of staging incoming police and fire department units.
“Fairdale Road was the only way in to Fairdale,” Berres said. “We lined everybody up. It was our initial effort. The next day, we started assessing the immediate needs of animals. We were helped by part-time warden Janet Ott.”
Berres said that they rescued one horse, five dogs, three cats, chickens, and two cockatoos. One of the dogs was injured. They also took care of loose livestock, such as sheep and cattle, and animals killed by the tornado.
“Fairdale is a small community,” Berres said. “All of the animal owners have been located, but we need to find temporary homes for pets and farm animals that belong to displaced families. There has been an outpouring of animal supplies. We are dealing with the storage and dispersal of the donations.”
Volunteer Lisa Grumbeck of Powers Lake, Wisconsin, said that the only donations needed from this time forward are monetary donations and gift cards.
For more information, contact: villageofkirkland.com.
Denise Moran is a freelance reporter for the Courier-News