Let’s Help Out Kokomo

This one is going to be personal, but that’s what happens when several tornadoes rip through your home town. Wednesday afternoon storms caused a ton of destruction across my home town of Kokomo on Wednesday. You might have seen the video of the Starbucks collapsing on the news, but it did a lot more.

Starting on the west side of the city the E3 tornado wiped out the PAL athletic fields. My grandfather’s home is less than a quarter mile from this and my parents were probably about a mile away. It then continued east and hit the plant where my brother-in-law works, wiped out the golf course near my elementary school, took out some apartments where friends used to live, and hit the Starbucks less than a mile from where my nephew was working at the time.

Kokomo is my home town. I have tons of friends and family there. It will always be a place dear to my heart and right now it is a mess. Thankfully, everyone I know is safe and sound, but there is a ton of damage to clean up and several people are displaced.

That’s why I am posting how you can help. If you are local, there are plenty of organized cleanup efforts that need hep. If you’re not local you can still help out. Here are some ways:

• Text REDCROSS to 90999 to support Red Cross relief efforts. Financial donations also can be made at redcross.org. The Indiana Red Cross can be contacted at (317) 684-1441.
• Text HOOSIER to 41444 to give to the Salvation Army, and their local information can be found here on Facebook.
• My beloved Wildkat basketball program is organizing a community outing with past and present players Saturday morning:

• Colts punter Pat McAfee will host "Cracking up for Kokomo" on Sept. 2 in conjunction with Live Nation at the Murat Theatre. Doors open at 8 p.m., and the show starts at 9. Ticket sales begin Monday. All money raised will go to the United Way of Howard County, Kokomo tornado relief.
• Kokomo was scheduled to play Hamilton Heights in football Friday night at Lucas Oil Stadium, but the game has been cancelled. Instead, the two teams will meet at 4:30pm at KHS to assist in a community clean up.
• The United Way of Howard County is also taking donations and organizing volunteers.

I would organize a GoFundme, but giving to Red Cross, United Way, or the Salvation Army will get the cash where it needs to go much faster. I hope all this made sense. I am a bit emotional typing this because, well, it hits very close to home, so help out if you can.