Local Brownstown Woman Helps With Tornado Pick Up in Charleston
By Anna Garner
Karen and David Stokes, Brownstown locals volunteer with the Samaritans Ministries Organization to help pick up after storms and give comfort to the people affected. Recently Karen spent time up in Charleston for 2 days helping with the tornado that just affected the area.
Samaritans Ministries or Samaritans Purse is a christian organization that helps with disaster relief nationwide as well as in other countries around the world. They do disaster relief for many varieties, mainly including tornadoes, fires and floods. Karen has been volunteering since 2024 and has been out on 4 deployments as the team calls them. Even though she has only helped with tornado related things, she is not opposed to the different varieties. “I saw an ad a few years ago for it and was making a list of different things I wanted to do and thought I would add it to my list” Karen stated. She is retired and likes that it gives her something to look forward to.
Karen has helped in Oklahoma, Illinois and Louisiana and recently in Charleston. She was there for 2 days and helped pick up trees out of the fields and break them down into smaller pieces. Even though she was only there 2 days you never know what you’re walking into. There was one memorable moment she had while she was in Oklahoma. She was helping pick up the pieces to a home that had been completely destroyed by the tornado. As she looked around and held photos of families in her hands, she noticed one striking thing, the kitchen of the home was almost perfectly intact. Cabinets were still on the walls, the fridge was standing in place but most amazing of all, magnets were still on the fridge in their original placement and even the cereal boxes on top of the fridge had not budged. She quickly whipped out her phone and took a picture, which is shown below. So even through all the destruction and damage some small part stayed standing. “Your job is to clean up the damage, but your mission is to speak to the owners” which is exactly what Karen did that day.
Not only do you get to help clean up and care for the people affected by these disasters, you also are able to meet some great people along the way who slowly can become your friends. She met one of her closest friends through the program. Even though her friend lives in Alabama they like to meet up and go on their deployments together. “It’s always so much fun as well as a great experience and you always meet the best people,” Karen said.
When she goes out on deployments the organization provides them with breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as shelter in a church somewhere in town, but transportation to the location is not provided. She normally will receive a text or email when help is needed and Karen jumps right on it as “It’s always a battle signing up because so many people want to volunteer right off the bat.” Depending on the situation though, helpers can vary from as little as 3 people to multiple groups of 15, you just never know what you’re going to get. While she was in Charleston there were 4 different teams and each team had a group leader. Karen’s team is pictured below and she is sitting front row on the left. Her favorite part about volunteering she says is a combination of things “The attitude that people have about helping and how it’s always so positive, and being able to meet so many new people from all over the world who share the same goals and values as you.” Karen does not plan to stop volunteering anytime soon as she plans to go as many times as she can. If you want to know more about the organization or want to help you can go to spvolunteer.org