Volunteers gathered at Seward United Methodist Church Sept. 1 to load supplies for flood victims in Texas. Pictured, from left, Josh Stoll, Melissa Luebbe and Becky Campbell organize diapers on a pallet to load into Jim and Linda Luebbe’s trailer. The Luebbes were taking a load of donations with them on their way to help their son, Karl, move to San Antonio.
It took less than 36 hours for the Seward community to line the halls of Seward United Methodist Church with donations for Texas.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, an outpouring of support has taken place for flood victims in Texas.
Jim and Linda Luebbe of rural Goehner were on a trip to Alaska until Aug. 29. Once they returned to Nebraska, they had plans to go to Texas to help their son Karl move to a home in the San Antonio area for a new job.
As Linda was packing for the trip, she realized they would be taking an empty pick-up to Texas.
“Why would I want to take an empty truck when we could take things?” she said.
She then reached out to friends to figure out a place where people could drop off donations. As word got out, Seward County residents brought donations to the church in Seward as well as a church in Goehner and the Luebbes’ church in Utica.
“God is great,” she said. “It’s just been amazing. It’s been overwhelming. I had phone calls this morning. I had people dropping off money yet this morning. People driving out to our farm and giving money, asking where they can take it. It’s just been wonderful.”
Volunteers and students at Seward High gathered Sept. 1 at SUMC to help load the couple’s pick-up and U-haul trailer.
Sue Imig and Carla Schwahn, who serve as co-chairs on one of the church’s committees, helped coordinate the church as a drop-off site after Linda called on Wednesday. Both Imig and Schwahn were present at the church to help take donations.
“It was just not a question of why we would do, it was a question of, can we get the word out in order to be beneficial,” Imig said. “It was just overwhelming, the outpouring of the community.”
“The folks of this caring community just make things happen,” Volunteer Jeanne Gee said.
Linda said Karl had a plan for drop-off locations once they arrived in Texas.
“Once they’ve got what they think they need, they move you to the next drop-off,” she said.
Karl told her he has A through H planned.
“I told him I only do A through Z,” she said smiling.
Seward native Keasha Zadina, who just began teaching in the Houston area, was displaced from flooding and had been staying with Karl during the hurricane. Zadina assisted with coordination efforts.
Linda was overwhelmed by the response.
“It’s just been 36 hours,” she said. “When people want to do good things for other people, you just get the word out.”
She said they took on this project because helping people is important.
“When I see the pictures like in Syria and Mexico, different places, those kids have nothing and they’re drowning. It just breaks my heart, so this is a way that I can give. Even though it’s not those places, I’m helping somebody and I’m hoping it’s a lot of kids,” she said.
