Helping hands: Frisco volunteers reach out to tornado victims

Tuesday's tornado count was estimated to have reached 9 to 18 tornados. Despite the sirens and weather coverage, nothing truly prepares the victims of tornados, who are left to pick up the pieces after the torrential storm.

Frisco Reach Out, a local organization, which according to its website, www.friscoreachout.com, "exists to bring Frisco and the surrounding communities hope. Whether it be providing school supplies to underprivileged students or toys and clothes to needy families at Christmas, we hope to help others with the blessings the Lord has given us," utilized their efforts to connect to the city of Forney.

Jo Hooper, director of Frisco Reach Out said the organization is gathering donations for Mustang Creek Community Church, a facility that sits near a subdivision stuck by one of the tornados.

"Basically what happened was the Diamond Creek community behind the church was one that lost, I think approximately 35 homes," Hooper said, "so the church is serving as a shelter, creating some volunteer efforts on the ground and things of that nature ... all the families in the church come together because they are adjacent to the property that was greatly damaged."

Hooper said the organization, which has been in Frisco since 2009, is helping to distribute goods and volunteer efforts over to the Forney church.

"Basically for today[Wednesday], tomorrow [Thursday] and Friday we're going to be collecting, they've requested baby goods, that's the first thing that they told us: diapers, formula, baby food," Hooper said. "They're doing clothing, they've asked for flashlights and batteries -- generators were a bit out of our reach because I only work with individuals, but I know those have been requested because the church doesn't have a lot of power, and then they're trying to get power out to the site so that they can do clean up."

She also added that the church is gathering volunteers to help clean up the debris in the nearby neighborhood.

"We're going to send some people I don't exactly know how many people, or when, I do know that a lot ... because they are setting up their own way of manning volunteers," Hooper said. "The church has set up a little orientation ... I know that we are just sending people directly to the church if they want to volunteer on the ground."

Hooper said the organization has volunteered and gained a friendship with members of the Forney church, even going on mission trips together.

"We have friends from Forney that work all of our Frisco Reach Out events, and then I did New Orleans with them because we do mission trips there twice a year and that's the church that they attend," Hooper said.

Volunteer efforts such as this are important, she said because "community stretches farther than city or county lines."

"We talk about doing community, and building life together and how especially churches are all in this thing together, what really becomes important to us is being there when a need arises, being there to meet those needs," Hooper said. "People are vulnerable, we do homeless ministry and those are evidently vulnerable people, but now we have several families that are homeless and it wasn't a prepared or planned for thing. We talk about ushering in not only physical needs, but also spiritual needs, emotional needs, giving dignity to people, so it's a lot about us going over there in a tangible way for them to not only see that they are loved, and that their situation isn't futile, so worth the hope and worth the effort to rebuild."

She also added that while the church has specifically requested baby products, all donations will be accepted.

"Even though certain things have been requested, if someone has lost something before then they know what's important, so I'm not just tied to clothes, and batteries, and flashlights," Hooper said. "I really have no problem if someone comes up and says 'hey I have this,' I have no problem figuring out if the random thing someone might want to donate, if they can work or fit ... Just because we're requesting specific things doesn't mean that we are closed minded."

For more information, contact jo@friscoreachout.com

Current Rating: 0 of 0 votes!

Rate File: Select Rating: * ** *** ****

 Plano Apartments
 Plano Attorneys
 Plano Auto Dealers
 Plano Auto Parts
 Plano Auto Repair
 Plano Beauty Salons
 Plano Car Rental
 Plano Dentists
 Plano Doctors
 Plano Flowers
 Plano Hotels
 Plano Insurance
 Plano Loans
 Plano Mortgages
 Plano Movers
 Plano Pizza
 Plano Realtors
 Plano Restaurants
 Plano Storage
 Plano Tax Preparation
 Plano Travel
 Featured
 More...