Flood Relief

Since 1982, the Care Service has demonstrated its mission to not only serve those in time of individual crisis but to also assist in times of community disasters. In 1993 as the Mississippi and Missouri rivers began to flow out of their banks, Sts. Joachim and Ann Care Service began organizing volunteers for the families in Lincoln and St. Charles counties.  Volunteers were organized to help with sandbagging, mass shelters and feeding, in addition to clean-up and long-term recovery.  Not only did the Care Service organize people’s time and talent, they were also instrumental in organizing their treasure.

The Care Service sought and secured funding from not only the Catholic community but also other denominations wishing to assist their neighbors but not having the skills to do the case management.  In working in collaboration with the Long-Term Recovery Committee the Care Service provided matching funds to assist the families in either the restoration of their home or the relocation to outside of the flood plain. The work that the Care Service has done responding to the floods, tornadoes and even hurricanes gives us the experience to assist our neighbors in 2008 that have flooded.