Premium ContentClick on Premium Content on the Featured navigation bar for information.
The big rig rolled through the parking lot of First United Methodist Church, its tires crunching on snow as it backed toward a set of double doors.
Inside the doors, four grandfatherly volunteers waited at half-court in the church gym.
Omahans Marv Morgan, Jack Boyer, Dean Hesselgesser and Lowen Kruse stood beside stacks of boxes packed with several thousand gallon-size plastic bags, which were in turn stuffed with wash cloths, soap, bandages, toothbrushes and other personal hygiene items.
People from all over metropolitan Omaha and Council Bluffs had donated the “Health Kits for Haiti” for a United Methodist Committee on Relief effort to help homeless earthquake survivors.
The driver, James Taylor, climbed out of the truck wearing a Cambridge (Neb.) Fire & Rescue jacket. The men threw the gym doors open. Taylor threw open the doors of the 48-foot-long semitrailer.
By the time Taylor had pulled into First United's Omaha parking lot Wednesday, boxes full of health kits already were stacked 6 feet high in the trailer. They had come from across Nebraska.
The men's breath hung in clouds in the frigid air as they chatted a minute. They quickly began hefting the 130 boxes into the trailer.
Taylor, manager of Soucie Trucking in Cambridge, and his chocolate labrador co-pilot, Cocoa, had started this trek in their southwest Nebraska hometown at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Taylor had picked up boxes in Cambridge, McCook, North Platte, Ogallala, Kearney, Grand Island, Norfolk and Lincoln before rumbling into Omaha.
After Omaha, he had one more stop to make — in Des Moines — before driving on down to a United Methodist Committee on Relief supply depot in Baldwin, La. From there, the health kits either would be sent on for distribution in Haiti or be used to refill earthquake-emptied shelves to be ready for the next disaster.
When it left Omaha, the truck was hauling 7,000 or 8,000 of the kits, said the Rev. Lyle Schoen of First United Methodist Church in Cozad, Neb. He coordinated the drive.
In Des Moines, Taylor loaded on another 4,331 kits, 146 layettes and 50 school bags in a statewide collection from all Methodist churches in Iowa that hadn't already sent a truck or mailed their kits directly.
While Methodists led the effort, donations came from churches of many denominations and from individuals, Schoen said.
Soucie donated the truck and fuel, although a few congregations also kicked in a few hundred bucks for diesel. Taylor volunteered his time and labor.
This is his third such trip with relief donations from Nebraska. The first two schlepped supplies to Hurricane Katrina survivors.
“People still care,” Boyer said.
Eighteen minutes after the truck doors opened in Omaha, the last box hit the trailer. Taylor made volunteers a tongue-in-cheek offer.
“I'm going to New Orleans,” he said. “It's Mardi Gras. There's either a lot of souls to be saved, or a lot of fun to be had if anyone wants to go along.”
There being no takers, he climbed back into the cab, and he and Cocoa rolled away.
They ran into mechanical problems Wednesday in Council Bluffs, and snow Thursday in Arkansas. They're due today in Louisiana, where five people from Elmwood, Neb., waited among other volunteers to help unload the truck.
Contact the writer:
444-1057, christopher.burbach@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
