By Mike Ramczyk
Every little bit helps in desperate times, and area churches stepped up to help the community last week.
Wendy Bell, a member of LifeBridge Church, said Tuesday she and a group of six other women rallied to help flood victims near the Fox River by Adrian’s both Saturday and Tuesday.
“We made up care packages with toothpaste, toothbrushes, and all kinds of goodies,” she said. “We made homemade cookies, soup and bread, along with lotion, and we took them to some homes we worked with on Saturday.”
On Saturday, LifeBridge set up a tent near Adrian’s, and people showed up with donations, including cleaning supplies.
Bell said they helped out at nearly 20 homes, providing relief with flood-drenched basements. One elderly woman had bad knees and needed strong, able bodies to carry things out of her home.
“She wasn’t able to walk stairs, and we carried everything and cleaned all the water from the basement and went through all of her stuff.”
Everyone the girls talked to Tuesday had power restored and were in a better situation, Bell said.
She said the church still plans to provide relief services to those in need.
Neighbors do their part
On July 19, American Red Cross spokesman beamed in the Burlington High School cafeteria when talking about the generosity amid the tragic flood of 2017.
Tracy Zuleger said every day, a woman would show up to the high school, not looking for anything to take, but simply asking to give.
From Thursday to Tuesday, she’s been showing up, grabbing water, food and whatever cleaning supplies and knocking on people’s doors in town, seeing what they need.
This kind of action made Zuleger emotional, and she needed a minute to gather herself.
Rich Koehnke, who grew up and lived in Burlington ahd Silver Lake for 20 years, has spent the last 10 years in Lake Come, near Lake Geneva.
He has a deep love for his hometown, and it’s shown in his actions. Koehnke takes photos and does social media for his own company, rightsightmedia, and he’s been capturing the images of the disastrous flood, with aerial shots of a water-logged area.
Most importantly, since Thursday, he’s been showing up at houses in need, helping with anything from removing waste and flooring to pumping water to something a bit more practical – preventing fraud.
“I’ve been trying to help people and give them advice before companies take advantage of them,” said Koehnke, who helped Burlington flood victims over the weekend and planned to help those in Silver Lake Wednesday. “I used to work for a resoration company. I’ve seen cleanup companies asking for a down payment, not showing up and charging somebody three to $4,000 just to clean up, or not working with people even though their insurance did not cover them.”
Koehnke helped remove drywall, pump out water, remove carpeting and carry things out of the basement.
“I want to help in any way that I can,” he said. “I don’t like seeing people get taken advantage of after they lost everything, and I definitely don’t need to be appraised for helping people. That’s what everybody should be doing at this point in time.”
Koehnke suggested the city of Burlington build a concrete wall around its power source, which is located on Congress Street roughly 200 feet from the lowest point in town.
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