Ellwood City Rotary Club helps flood victims
ELLWOOD CITY ― When the Rotary Club of Ellwood City learned of the extent of the recent flooding in the area its members stepped up to help.
Rotary president Doug Slade said they were touched by the plight of neighbors who were dealing with record flooding for the second time in two weeks.
Beaver Valley flooding: Flooding shuts down several Beaver Valley roads throughout weekend
The club immediately responded by spearheading the effort to help.
The Rotary had two initiatives to help the flood victims along Connoquenessing Creek. The first was to meet the immediate needs for essentials including food and water. The second was to help with the cleanup efforts as soon as the waters started receding.
The Rotary Club set up a plan for collecting essentials at the Trinity Lutheran Church on April 13 and distributed the badly needed help on April 14.
Using the churches and social media, the call went out and people responded generously.
“The community and churches answered the call and we got a lot of financial donations that we used to buy additional supplies and hoagies, chips, and drinks. The food was greatly appreciated,” Slade said.
On April 14, Rotary members delivered cleaning supplies, water, hoagies, and McDonalds gift cards.
On April 15, the Rotary rented two 30-yard roll-off Dumpsters from Aiken Refuge that were delivered to Rustic Park Road.
“Aiken Refuge gave us a discount on the roll-offs and we very much appreciate them teaming with us in this effort,” Slade said.
Several Rotarians went to the neighborhoods that evening with a truck and trailer to help residents take things to the Dumpsters.
“Our Rotary Club is so impressed by the generosity of our community and the gratitude of the affected residents,” Slade said.
On Thursday, Rotary members will take two pickups filled with food, water and cleaning supplies along with gift cards to distribute directly to the families affected by the flooding.
“This was a wonderful project and the contributions from our community were amazing. Super proud of our club for pulling this all together so quickly. It is why Rotarians are called People of Action,” Slade said.
Rotarian Ann Mason brought the idea to Slade and helped to get the program started.
Ellwood City Rotary helps: Ellwood Rotary delivers water to East Palestine residents
In February 2023, the Rotary Club of Ellwood City launched the same kind of initiative to help residents in nearby East Palestine, Ohio, when they were devastated by the Norfolk Southern train derailment.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Ellwood City Rotary collects items to help flood victims
