Well I am one of those people who are compelled to help in any way possible in a tragedy. Its just second nature to me and something I do expecting nothing in return. RAK's right!?
A friend of mine lives in a small down outside Effingham IL, Watson. This town was shook up one Sunday afternoon.
After seeing some of her Facebook posts I picked up the phone to call her and see "whats going on"
A 7 year old little girl by the name of Willow had reportedly walked away from her home in her night shirt no shoes and left her glasses behind.
The small town of Watson really wasn't big enough for her to walk that far without others noticing. So a search was formed.
Citizens of Watson, family, friends and people from surrounding towns started walking the bean fields and corn fields. As it grew and grew the search became harder and the temperature got hotter.
They had up to 3,000 volunteers in a town of 300 people. Amazing how others can come together knowing her or not knowing her just to try and help find this innocent sweet little girl.
1 hour turned into 10 hours and 10 hours turned in to 20 hours. Still nothing! No clues, no signs. People on horses, atvs, cars, trucks by foot all continuously searched for Willow.
As supplies grew thin a lightbulb went of in my head about 50 miles away from Watson I sat at my desk at work and said.. "What can I do?"
We all know social media is the thing to use when you want people to see whats going on right… Well thats what I went to an hour and 1/2 before I was done with the work day I posted "I am going to take any supplies and monitory donations to the search and rescue groups that are looking for Willow. They need items such as water, bug spray, sun screen, energy bars, towels, and first aid supplies. I will be leaving town at 5:30 PM!
In one hour I got 12 cases of Water, 2 cases of Sunscreen, 1 case of bug spray, lots of energy snacks, towels and over 150$ just from random people that said "I too want to help"
This made my heart smile and as I was driving into the town of Watson a slight anxiety came over me as I saw people loading out of busses and walking and on horses and 4-wheelers. Just amazing. As I went to the citizen center where they were holding supplies I heard a exhausted voice that said "ahhh water" that was totally worth it as I looked over and they just looked exhausted hot and tired. But they were helping! Unloading the SUV with all the stuff there were news cameras just overwhelmed then when they found out I drove as far as I did to just make sure there was supplies they were stunned.
Small towns care! Thats why I love mine!
Here is a picture that was taken of everything just an hour and 1/2's time came up with for a complete stranger but from all the people that cared about one thing…. The safety of Willow!
Thanks for reading
And God Bless!
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