September 1, 2017 at 3:50 p.m.
From Tomahawk to Texas: Northwoods residents donate to Hurricane Harvey relief effort
THS grads take 'small' collection of supplies back to Houston suburb
From Tomahawk to Texas: Northwoods residents donate to Hurricane Harvey relief effort
The Glaesers, both math teachers in Dickinson, did not experience Hurricane Harvey firsthand as they flew into Eau Claire before the storm hit to attend a wedding.
Getting home, however, has been a bit complicated.
"We'd been canceled and delayed and we finally said we want a voucher. It was Sunday and we got canceled three times," Nick said. "And it was like, we're not going to sit here for three days in a hotel, we're just going to come back to Tomahawk. And it was like half a day sitting around and we were thinking, why don't we check out if we can get a U-Haul instead."
The goal was to collect enough donations to fill that truck, drive it back to their district's high school and distribute the items to to the people of Dickinson, many of whom lost everything to Hurricane Harvey-related flooding.
First they had to get a truck, which at first seemed like it would be a difficult task as all they could find locally was a smaller truck.
Nick said the U-Haul rental agent asked what they needed the truck for and they immediately explained their plan to bring donations to their flooded town.
"He worked some magic," Nick said. "They didn't even want us to bring a vehicle down there because of how bad it was."
Then Packaging Corporation of America pitched in by picking up the rental cost.
"Then U-Haul said, if you fill that one, we'll provide a trailer," Nick said. "They threw that in for free."
While they were trying to arrange a way to transport donations down to Dickinson, they were getting reports from coworkers on social media.
"We heard from our coworkers that there were hundreds of kids and their families waiting at our middle school trying to get in because (the water) was up to their roofs. And they had to assess the damage to the building before they could let anyone in," Nick said. "Then they called for a mandatory evacuation because they had to open the dam on the Dickinson Bayou. And we had teachers commenting 'where can we go, we're an island, we need boats, we can't go anywhere.' I was just bawling while I was reading this stuff."
Eventually, boats began ferrying people from their rooftops to Clear Lake City nearly 20 miles to the north toward Houston, he explained.
"Now that they have cleared the evacuation, they can come back," he said. "Dickinson High School is fine and it opened today at 2 p.m. for a shelter for everybody to go to."
The Glaesers started accepting donations at SARA Park on Tuesday, and quickly filled the first vehicles with cases of bottled water, clothing, cleaning supplies, pet food, personal hygiene products, diapers, school supplies, "thousands of toothbrushes" and other donations. Their little effort was documented by the area television stations and the donations turned into an outpouring of generosity from beyond Tomahawk.
"We were on the air and everything just started going crazy from there," Nick said Wednesday as he, Amanda and members of their families were busy trying to figure out how to get the tidal wave of donations to fit in the additional U-Haul trucks and trailers they were able to add to their fleet.
"This is only a two-day thought and this is what it's turned into," he said, adding that they received at least eight or nine pallets of bottled water.
"That's what's killing us right now for weight," Nick said. "We are overloading all these vehicles right now to the max."
He added that his dad is planning to come down with a truck and trailer for transporting water only, a total of 190 cases in those alone.
Nick and Amanda planned to leave on Thursday with the biggest rental truck and trailer. Other vehicles are to follow over the next few days on the 24-hour drive down to Dickinson.
Another small convoy is headed to Texas from Hurley, spearheaded by a couple of retired teachers who heard what the Glaesers were doing, Nick added.
Their donations are heading to Dickinson High School to be distributed to needy families in the Dickinson Independent School District.
Glaeser said he learned from a neighbor that his house, located 8 miles away from Dickinson and purchased just this spring, had 4 inches of water inside it but otherwise weathered the storm well.
"We called the Houston airport Sunday after the big majority of the flooding and I asked how's eagle parking two looking and they said so far, none of their parking lots are flooded," Nick said. "Knock on wood."
He said he and Amanda have been overwhelmed by the local response to their donation drive, which included a collection at Tuesday night's Kwahamot water ski show. The Glaesers spend their summers in Tomahawk and Nick skies with the team.
"It just makes me want to cry how much support we've gained. We honestly thought we would not even fill this," Nick said, gesturing toward the smallest rental truck. "It just blew up."
They have even received messages from their coworkers reporting that coverage of their efforts to collect donations in Tomahawk has started appearing on Houston television stations.
"Our principal and coworkers were all in tears when they found out what's going on up here," he said. "It was just a crazy response, my phone is just blowing up with Facebook messages. And we have coworkers who have lost absolutely everything."
As an example, he showed a Facebook post from a school secretary grappling with the storm's aftermath.
"Hello everyone, my phone was a casualty of hurricane (sic) Harvey, so I have not not been on social media to much. Had this iPad in the camper and it is working. I know many of you have reached our to me personally and I have not been able to respond, but have felt your love and concern. Thank you. We did not weather this hurricane very well, our home is a total loss, as well as or (sic) vehicles and camper trailer. It was an emotional day yesterday, watching your memories of 30 years float away, never to be recovered, baby pictures of my children and grand babies, etc. The water came in fast and in no time, it was chest high on my 6 ft. husband. We are in the Clear Lake area, safe and dry. My heart hurts for all the others in this same situation," it read.
"That is just one situation where she had posted to social media," Nick said. "And we have 11,000 students at our school district in Dickinson and they are figuring half of them were total losses."
"We have 660 (students) just on our campus," added Amanda, who has extended family in the Rhinelander area.
The numerous volunteers who worked furiously to get the donations repacked and loaded into trucks and trailers were fed pizza donated by one of the Glaeser's elementary teachers and a local pizza restaurant.
Nick said he has a "feeling that there will be more trips coming out of Tomahawk," loaded with donations" as the Houston area recovers the natural disaster.
The couple planned to leave Tomahawk on Thursday for the drive to Dickinson which Nick said would take approximately 24 hours.
Jamie Taylor may be reached via email at [email protected].
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