Morgan County Long Term Recovery Update

This article appeared in the August 16, 2012 issue of the Licking Valley Courier and is reprinted with permission from the publisher.

The Morgan County Long Term Recovery Team is made up of several faith based organizations, civic organizations, and businesses. A valuable member of our team is the United Methodist Church. Both the Pastor and his wife, Jamie and Sue Brunk [West Liberty UMC], are active members.

The arm of their church organization that is active with disaster relief is called UMCOR, United Methodist Committee on Relief. UMCOR has provided training for our case workers.

There is another training session for anyone desiring to be a case worker scheduled for August 23 and 24. This two-day event is 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Lunch will be provided at the Prince of Peace Catholic Church in West Liberty. Please contact us if you are interested in becoming a caseworker.

The United Methodist Church also actively supports case management and projects through resources and volunteers. An Impact Kentucky event is scheduled for Saturday, August 25.

Volunteers from all over Kentucky will donate their time, resources, and talents to the areas affected by the early storms. Many of the surrounding counties are scheduled to have volunteers impact their communities.

The maximum number of volunteers per county is planned to be 100. The desire of people wanting to help cannot be contained to 100 for our county. We expect there will be over 170 volunteers that Saturday.

We will not limit their services to tornado recovery only. If you are in need of a few extra people to help you with a project or you know of any elderly that could use assistance, please call.

We will provide some tools and others will bring their own, but most jobs and work teams will not be able to plan ahead for the projects so some of the people getting assistance will need to provide some tools for people to work with.

The West Liberty United Methodist Church, like other Morgan County churches that have lost their buildings, property, and/or parsonages, are proving again that the church is the people not the place.

If you are interested in joining or if you have needs that have not been resolved by insurance companies and FEMA, you can contact us at: Morgan County Long Term Recovery Team, P.O. Box 371, West Liberty, KY 41472. Our telephone numbers are 606-743-1225 and 606-496-8756.