Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.BLAIR, Neb. — She hustled about the dorm's makeshift kitchen, adjusted the slow cooker and started to fill the plastic foam container with leftovers.
Laura Ronning packaged and placed the full meal in the fridge.
She is one of more than 10 volunteers from Country Bible Church in Blair who shop, chop, cook, deliver and clean up each week after meals for more than 100 flood evacuees who pay $150 a month to live in the former Dana College's Holling Hall.
Volunteers from Country Bible Church serve food on Thursdays. Other churches, as well as Fernando's Mexican restaurant and people around town, pitch in to serve food at the dorm other nights of the week.
“There's something about roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy that I think many of us associate with comfort from our childhood,” Ronning said, dishing up a creamy spoonful of potatoes. “It's just an honor and a privilege to turn around and serve somebody else who went through a hard time.”
A year ago this community was devastated by the announcement Dana College would close. Holling Hall was freshly abandoned, collecting dust.
The past three weeks, however, have seen lights, laughter and young people return, with the temporary housing of flood-displaced people, most of whom live or work in Washington County.
The food tastes just like home, said Larry Weyhrich, a resident. It's also better than living off fast food for the remainder of the summer, he said.
“Who does this for people? Evidently people in Blair do,” said Weyhrich, sitting down for a piece of chocolate cake.
Weyhrich's Missouri Valley, Iowa, home was not yet under water, but with Highway 30 temporarily closed, he needed a place to stay so he could get to work at Railserve in the Cargill complex on the east side of Blair.
He shares a Holling Hall room with his wife, Kathy Lee, and enjoys the support of other flood victims and one hot meal a night.
An average of 50 people show up each night for meals, said Kristina Churchill, a volunteer meal coordinator. Another 15 people request hot plates because they work between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., when dinner is served.
Volunteers have prepared about 700 meals in the three weeks since the effort began, she said, and volunteers are signed up to feed flood victims through mid-August.
Mealtime is like a family reunion, Churchill said.
Volunteers and evacuees sit together around tables in the dorm's main-floor commons area. They make jokes and tease each other. People pitch in after dinner, with children wiping down tables and pushing in chairs.
“It's really helped to ease some of the stress that they're going through at this time,” said Glen Hudson, associate pastor of congregational care at Country Bible Church.
Hudson has spent several days serving up food and spending time with residents. He said the nightly meals at the dorm allow people to relax and get to know each other.
“It's exciting to see when needs arise that people in the community will just roll up their sleeves and pitch in and help,” he said.
Ruth Standish couldn't be more grateful. “The silver lining in this is that I haven't had to do dishes for weeks,” she said with a laugh.
Standish and her husband, Bob, have called Dana College home for the past 2½ weeks. They relocated there after leaving their Blair home near the Driftwood Inn.
Their home now is under several feet of Missouri River floodwater.
A dorm room may not be ideal, Standish said, but it's better than a shelter or gymnasium. Each room has two sets of drawers, two desks and two bunk beds. Flood evacuees bring the rest or use donated items.
Ruth Standish appreciates the privacy her second-floor room provides.
“It's a little spot we can go and be alone and watch what we want to on TV,” she said.
About three-fourths of the dorm's 75 rooms are occupied. With more flood evacuees arriving daily, the hall is expected to fill up soon, said Harriet Waite, executive director of the Blair Area Chamber of Commerce.
Dorm residents, as well as other local flood victims, have received a range of items. Fifty laundry baskets. A package of 12 rib-eye steaks. A group of kids even set up a lemonade stand and donated the $150 in profits they made, Waite said.
“We see the best of people during this time,” she said.
Holling Hall has proved a nice place for resident Judi Walk's four children to find friends, she said. They always have someone to play with.
“My 7-year-old came up to me and said ‘I never want to leave, Mom,' ” she said.
Walk, her husband, Brett, and their children were forced out of Blair's Northview Apartments last week. They had just moved there from Tekamah, Neb., and hadn't finished unpacking.
A stay-at-home mother of four boys, Walk finds it challenging to spend so much time in small rooms. She also finds it difficult to prepare two meals a day that are healthy and filling.
“It's pretty much anything you can make in a microwave,” she said. “It's been an adjustment.”
The Mahoney family was forced out of its home in California Junction, Iowa, about 2½ weeks ago because of rising floodwaters. Most of California Junction's 100 residents have evacuated the area, they said.
“They're trying to make it as comfortable as possible, but it's not my house,” Crista Mahoney said at the dormitory with her husband, Tim, and two children.
Mahoney arranged for her family to stay at the dorm after realizing all of their nearby immediate family also were affected by the flood. Her part-time job at the Blair YMCA and her husband's full-time position at Evonik Industries allow the family to stay.
The best part about dorm life is the support system, Mahoney said. Most evenings she finds herself talking with other residents on the hall's east stoop.
“You either have a room with two chairs and a bed or two or you come out here and visit,” she said.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1117, emily.nohr@owh.com
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