Argie Garcia took one look at the gaggle of neon-yellow vested volunteers from Indiana-American Water and couldn’t help herself.
Garcia, a member of United Autoworkers Local 2335, was taking a break from hauling debris at a decimated home on Taft Place in Merrillville when the men walked up en masse to join the effort. She looked at her pals she brought along, and it just came out.
“Minions!” she shouted before they all dissolved into laughter. “I don’t know how I came up with that. I’m no good.”
Garcia and her friends, Tamara Green-Moore, Monica Williams-Sutton, and “adopted” friend Katherina Yang, were representing Habitat for Humanity and Centier Bank, respectively, as part of a larger clean-up effort coordinated by the Town of Merrillville, United Way of Northwest Indiana and the Big Shoulders Fund out of Chicago. Coming directly from their 12-hour overnight shift, getting out and helping had special meaning for Garcia.
“This is my neighborhood, and I lost my garage in the storm,” she said. “Look at all this: You have to laugh, or you’ll cry.”
With the Big Shoulders Fund set up on the left of the strip mall at 61st Avenue’s parking lot and the United Way on the right, the more than 300 volunteers fanned out into the neighborhoods hit by the EF2 tornado June 11. Big Shoulders, to whom the Dean & Barbara White Foundation brought the project, rounded up 50 Andrean High School students to help, said Dan Kozlowski, the fund’s Northwest Indiana executive director.
White Foundation Executive Director Bill Hanna was pleased so many kids showed up.
“I think it’s sad that these things happen, but the upside is seeing these kids wanting to help,” Hanna said. “(Andrean) has been a cornerstone in the community since 1959, so to come out not just for the school but for the community is great. People were asking us how to help.”
Senior Mitchell Myers, 17, understood the assignment.
“We want to show that we’re not just for Andrean,” he said.
Incoming Andrean freshman Emma Jocic, 14, was shocked at how widespread the damage is because, until Friday, she’d only seen the damage to the school. Being out there helping “just felt right,” she said.
Jocic isn’t alone in having a hard time wrapping her head around the extent of the damage. Merrillville Fire Chief Ed Yerga said they initially thought only six homes were destroyed by the tornado, but then Homeland Security came in with its assessment.
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“We have 205 homes that were destroyed, as in can’t be repaired,” Yerga told the Post-Tribune. “Sixty-one suffered major damage, while 104 received minor damage and 119 were ‘affected.’ It went from bad to unbelievable in a matter of hours.
“This is the first time in my 37 years here that we had to enact our whole emergency plan, and it’s still a miracle that we had only one injury and no deaths.”
Everyone getting out in community even had a positive effect on the police officers, who’ve now added “decimated area patrol” to their duties. They haven’t minded at all, Merrillville Police Chief Kosta Nuses added.
“We’ve added patrols in the neighborhoods where our guys leave their lights on steady so residents know we’re there. As a result, they’ve been getting out and talking to people, and morale is way up,” he said. “They’re more than happy to be out there.”
Shaun Patterson, crisis preparedness and response coordinator for the United Way, said Friday’s effort was the largest he’s undertaken since joining the organization three years ago, and he was thrilled to see it go off without a hitch.
“The community really wants to come together, and if we can be the convener of that, that’s what we want,” he said. “And we’ll continue to coordinate with our partners to help whoever needs us.”
The American Red Cross, The Salvation Army, Lake County EMA and Legacy Foundation also contributed to the effort.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.