I got a call on Saturday afternoon this weekend from George Esbensen. George is our Fire Chief. George told me of a call me received from an official from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) looking for volunteers to go to Florida to assist with the recovery efforts from Hurricane Frances. Specifically, FEMA was looking for people that had been through their Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program. We have an active CERT program here in Eden Prairie. FEMA knew that. Hence, the call to our Fire Chief.
So, a flurry of call were made; schedules were changed; lives were temporarily put on hold; and 14 Eden Prairie citizens got on an airplane bound first for Atlanta, Georgia for a crash course in hurricane recovery, and then on to Florida for two weeks of hard, rewarding work. They each had about an hour or so to make the decision, and then less than 24 hours to be ready and on that airplane.
How about that.
This is a shot of our crew unloading their stuff at the airport getting ready for departure.
That’s Sheri Lundeen on the right in the front. That’s Jeff Carrane on the left in front. Rick Thompson is back near the door of the bus. You can just see the top of Becki White’s head behind Jeff.
This group of Eden Prairie citizens was willing to drop what they were doing to help their fellow citizens in Florida. Hats off to them! I’ll be following their trip and giving you updates along the way. This is a great story.
