Folks Of Interest **Post JOPLIN trip Report and a Huge THANK YOU**

I felt it would be good to report back after delivering donations and helping out a little in Joplin, Mo. Also, this is my small way of letting everyone that did donate, and help make this trip happen, know just how much I REALLY appreciate it!

After seeing Ryno's thread (http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=592620) on Monday evening, I thought about collecting a few donations at work and from friends here in Omaha. Thought about it more throughout the day on Tuesday and had an email sent out to everyone in our Omaha offices at work (http://www.hdrinc.com/).

Originally I had planned on driving my Chevy Silverado 1500 pickup and pulling a borrowed 4'x8' enclosed trailer to haul the donated items. Well, already on Wednesday morning, stuff was piling up at work, other friends were collecting items at their jobs, Omaha area HAMB members started to bring items to my house, and even a couple random people from the Omaha area called me to donate (found my Joplin HAMB thread via a Google search).

My small effort was snow-balling into something that became a bit overwhelming. My first thought was to either rent a Uhaul (type) truck or see if one could be donated to use. We quickly found out that Memorial Day Weekend was a huge weekend for moving and could not get ahold of a truck.

I ended up asking my sister to borrow her Ford F350 Dually and Gary (hot-rod roadster on here) offered to let me use his enclosed car trailer. Yes, my little sister drives a HUGE F350 truck. She (Mareena) is serving with the Army National Guard in Afghanistan right now and was more than happy to let us use her truck. Mareena, thank you for your service to our country and the use of your truck! Gary, thanks a ton for letting me borrow your trailer!

On Thursday evening I met my dad up near Sioux City, IA, to trade pickups. In the mean-time, I had asked friends to stop at my house to help sort through donations, organize, and load up the trailer.

A bunch of great friends showed up with very little notice to help out.




This was a little later, after I returned with the truck, and most of the work was already done!




A few photos of items donated and piling up in my garage. By Thursday afternoon, there was a WALL of donations stacked up near the garage door!




A whole pallet of bottled water was donated by Dan Holtmeyer with Verne Simmonds Company!



All of these heavy duty tarps (old billboard signs) were donated by Waitt Sign Company!






(please be patient, more to come)

 

A few friends from Lincoln took it upon themselves to collect items and ended up with another truckload that they dropped off on Thursday evening. TJ, Lisa, Tim, Jess and Speedway Motors employees: THANK YOU so much!




Things kept piling up in the trailer and we went to get a whole 'nother pickup load of donations from Goldeez Bar here in Omaha. Thank you, Lindsey, for collecting everything!!

By the time Friday morning rolled around, the trailer was almost full to the brim and I still had more to pack into it. A friend from Lincoln (Jen) had offered to come along to help, so she came over on Friday morning. We finished packing up and she noticed a bad tire on the truck. Jeff (hiboy32), Jason (jho), Larry (Sololobo) and I replaced the bad tire with the spare and Jen and I headed to work to pick up a few more things.











Another co-worker (Dan Karnes) and his wife (Sarah) were also planning on going to Joplin to help out. He offered to help haul donations, so we loaded some into the back of his pickup.

 

Jen and I hit the road for Joplin... well, actually Ryno's house, just north of Joplin.
We quickly realized just HOW overloaded the trailer was. We were only a couple blocks away from work and I noticed some smoke. The trailer tires were rubbing on the wheel-wells! We quickly pulled into a parking lot, made a few phone calls, and put out a call for help on Facebook. Within 20 minutes we had about 10 people there helping us unload the trailer and come up with a plan.

We had over 100 cases of bottled water that made up most of the weight, so we unloaded all of them, plus the large (heavy) tarps, and bags of dog food. Dan went to get his dad's open car trailer to haul most of the water and Mike Doran came to the rescue with his 3/4 ton van to help haul water, tarps, and dog food.

Mike dropped everything and ended up coming with us, hauling those items, and helping out with the cleanup in Joplin. GREAT guy -- Thanks a ton, Mike!

 

A bit south of St. Joe, Mo, the turbo hose blew off of my sister's truck. The hose clamp actually split in half! Somehow we were lucky enough to be only a half mile from a truck stop (with a service shop) that was able to help us out. I swear someone was watching over us.

Within 15 min. we were fixed and back on the road. They asked where we were headed and would not let us pay them, or accept any tips. Proof there are some great people out there.




Our next stop was for fuel on the south end of Kansas City.
Chris Nelson (sodbuster) offered to meet up with us, make a cash donation, as well as some other items. He also delivered a chainsaw from Mike (Cactus1) for us to use. Thanks alot you guys, much appreciated!!

(photos from Chris)


Mike, myself, Jen

 

So Awesome! Reading this gave me chills. I think of the T. Lawrence country song, " Find out who your friends are"

 

We arrived at Ryno's around 8:30, tired, but safe and sound. Had some pizza, BSed for a while and crashed.

Ryno had put together a plan to work out of the St. Paul United Methodist Church parking lot. His wife, Jess, works at the church. We set up camp, sorted through items, and eventually went out to a few areas to help cut trees, sort through rubble to find belongings, etc.










Ryno is in the red shirt in this photo. He has (and continues to) put a huge effort and a ton of time into helping the Joplin community. He deserves a ton of credit and respect for what he is doing. GREAT guy! Ryno, again, thanks for directing much of this and letting us crash at your house for a couple nights!!

 

Cool, My cousin was working there Saturday with her church group from Rogersville and she said she saw people handing out lots of water.

 

Big Ken, Rudy J, Kirk, and other HAMB members (whom I really wish I could recall right now) were also present to help grille, sort, distribute, clean up, and help out tremendously with the whole effort. You guys all rule!



Obviously there is MUCH more that happened and continues to happen, when it comes to the efforts put forth to help in Joplin.

Like I said, I felt it would be good to report back and let all that donated see how they have helped this community. You all deserve a BIG THANK YOU. This comes from me and I'm sure all of those that you have helped.



The rest of the photos are as we drove through Joplin and one of the sites that we helped dig through.

 

co-worker Dan, his wife Sarah, myself, and Jen



















I believe this was a salon that is already being rebuilt




This elementary school was built in 1927

 

This is just amazing. There still are great people in this world.

 

There really is no need for me to post more photos of the destruction. I'm sure you've all seen plenty of that.


One last time, I just want to reinforce how thankful I am for everyone that pitched in to help out the Joplin community.
It means more to me than you know and I want you all to remember that Joplin will continue to need help and ***istance for quite some time to come.


THANK YOU.
Nick Hoesing
aka "Malcolm"


**EDIT**
I have a few more people to thank and give credit to.

There are quite a few friends, family, co-workers, and HAMB members that also helped make all of this happen. Whether it be helping collect and organize donations, helping load/unload the pickups/trailers with short notice, monetary donations, or just moral support when I began to get overwhelmed.... ALL of you are awesome and again, I just want you ALL to know how much I appreciate your support!!

The generous monetary donations were used towards fuel for the three vehicles that hauled items down to Joplin, as well as extra food and supplies. I sent the remainder to Ryno to continue helping with his efforts. Thank you, everyone!

 

Well done Nick, and everyone involved in this effort. What a great bunch of people. Gary

 

God Bless you Guys And all your help . We are blessed to have caring people like you to come to the aid of others when they are down. I am a local , I was lucky Buy the grace of God my home & family came out unscaved. I only had 2 of my warehouses roofs tore off. Again THANKS . LEON

 

Thanks man, the HAMB rocks.

 

I watched you on FB, Your a good guy Nick!

 

Thank You Nick. I am honored to know you. Well done.

 

great work man, the one +ve of all the natural disasters at the moment is social networking seems to have a great positive effect in putting folks in touch who can help others out, in the recent earthquakes here we had the student army and Farmy army (farmers) doing a huge ammount to help the people of Christchurch. I'm sure there are a million little stories around all these things but its great to see people being able to ***ist others in their time of need.

 

amazing job guys, thank you all for what you did. i have some very good friends that live in benton, mo who were in joplin helping out. the photos they sent me were beyond description. you cannot measure what volunteers like you mean to someone who has lost everything, thank you again.

 

rulers the lot of ya! great work again guys

 

Nick, thanks for representing the Hot Rod community so well. And to Ryno...Man, you rule...

 

Good going man!

 

AMAZING JOB you guys did. Thanks and congratulations to everyone involved!

 

Thanks to everyone that helped make that happen. And also, thanks for the report Nick. I am sure you guys made an impact in many peoples lives because of your generosity. It is great to see how folks can come together and help others in times of need.

 

I am so proud of all you guys, these are actions that restore faith in humanity. It may have been a small touch, but the truck stop fixing the turbo at no charge is just outstanding. Being on the front line was surely an unforgettable experience. Our hotrod community here is the best. ~sololobo~

 

Nick, thanks for posting this. I am sure it feels good to see were these donations went....directly to those in need.. When you said you were going to be working out of a church, I just ***umed that would be more than just frame work. Ryno, thankyou for all the help you have put into the community.


Jeff

 

It's tough to put into words just how proud I am of everyone that has helped out the folks in Joplin.

 

Incredible! Thank you all for your generosity. We are proud of you!!

 

wow, thanks for all the kind words fellas.
Malcolm, thanks man, I've been meaning to get the time to do a thread like this, but just haven't, so thank you too every single person that sent donations, gift cards, money, etc etc.

im planing out this weekends force now. we are going to get some plastic totes, so the few belonging that people do find can at least be put into something that is safe and dry. man could you image sorting through all this to try and find your belonging? maybe great grandmas ring that has been p***ed down, or grandpas knife he gave you as a young boy, or maybe morbid as it may sound, the ashes of a love one you had in your home, that is now just a concrete slab. all examples of stuff I've heard.

we will also be cooking for the victims and workers again, so if any local guys wanna come on out please, we could use the help!

heart breaking.
humbling.