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| The Miller Ranch area was filled with multiple groups of volunteers that paraded the area with red buckets bringing water and food to other home owners and volunteers Saturday. Staff photo by Luke Townsend |
Snyder said the volunteers have come out in surprising numbers. Several volunteers buzzed around the station at the Bramlage Coliseum parking lot waiting for the next bus to take them to their destination.
One volunteer group of ladies called the "Manicurists" signed up for the bus that ran in the morning to the College Heights area to pick up downed limbs and debris for residents in that area. Only two of the group members previously knew each other — Connie Sullivan and Brenda Parker had been longtime friends and decided to help out with the organized effort after helping friends in the Amherst area all day Thursday. The group's other members, "Hoot" and Karina, worked moving large tree branches along with smaller twigs and debris from people's lawns. They came across one man who had a fallen tree on the side of his house. He was cutting the limbs to make them easier to get to the street. The Manicurists swept in and, in a matter of minutes, the majority of the tree was on the curb, along with a large pile of leaves and smaller tree parts.
Moving heavy tree parts in the morning was no easy task. Wiping her eyes, Sullivan confessed she was starting to sweat.
"I just hate when I start to sweat and it gets in my eyes and burns," Sullivan said as she moved on, looking for more debris to clean up.
The group was called the Manicurists because not only were they picking up large limbs and moving them to the curb for crews to later pick up, but they were also picking up leaves and smaller sticks.
"I just want to make their yards look good," Parker said. "These smaller pieces could get a caught in a lawn mower and hurt someone."
Sweating in the blazing June sun, the Manicurists moved up and down the streets cleaning up yards littered with roofing and insulation along with miscellaneous other items. They also spoke with some of the homeowners who were also out trying to clean up some of the wreckage the storm had left.
One man told crews that this was his second full day of cleaning his yard, but he was thankful to have a few extra hands to get the larger pieces he couldn't haul by himself.
"It just makes you feel good," Sullivan said riding back on the bus to get lunch and the next work place. "If something like that happened to my house, I would want help too, it's nice to help others if you are able."
Sullivan wasn't the only one to feel that way. After a lunch of donated items from local vendors, the Manicurists broke up into a smaller group and went to the Grandview Drive area just north of the Wildcat Creek Linear Park area. Attached to a trailer on Oakdale Drive was a sign by a resident that read, "Don't just drive by looking, start helping."
Sullivan saw the sign and said, "Yep, that is exactly what we are here to do."
She wasn't the only one — several buses pulled in and out of the Bramlage parking lot at K-State carrying volunteers led by RCFD members to different sites around the city to help in the cleanup effort.
Children and adults alike signed in at the command center and dedicated their time to helping fellow residents recover from the storm. Longtime Manhattan resident Gerry Posler said that, after seeing a friend's house completely destroyed, he read that the city was looking for volunteers to help around the city.
"I thought 'That's OK, I can help a little while today,'" Posler said. "There wasn't anything else I had to do."
Posler said he had a great time helping out and cleaning.
"I'm happy to help out a little bit," he said, adding that he has been a Manhattan resident since 1975 and was one of the people who helped set up the city's crisis center and has always felt compelled to help out around the community when needed.
Snyder said the city completed its goal for the day and may set its sights on sending volunteers to the Amherst area, but aren't sure if help is needed there.
"There are so many people in that area that just showed up. We aren't sure if they need any more over there," Snyder said.
As for more volunteering opportunities for the next few days, Snyder said they will "play it by ear" to see if more volunteers are needed.
The community pulling together impressed everyone involved. Many smiling faces were ready at the station in the Bramlage parking lot to get to work and help out in any way they could. Snyder said Manhattan was "a great community with great Midwestern values, everyone just pitches it and helps their townspeople."
