Fire-Fighting FoodCorps!

 For the last couple of days I have had a sore throat and a hacking cough, but it is not a summer cold. It comes from the hazy blue smoke haunting Lame Deer, blowing in from the raging Ash Creek fire twenty miles east of Lame Deer. Since last Tuesday, the Boys & Girls Club has been acting as an emergency shelter for evacuees from the town of Ashland as well as home base for the Red Cross and Salvation Army. The electricity has been off and on for days, and the Club staff has been working 16-20 hour shifts to keep the shelter running. This fire is the number one priority fire in Montana, and my housemates and I have had our evacuation bags packed for several days should the wind change.

Despite the fact that this is a horrifying natural disaster, this experience has been inspirational. I’ve been responsible for organizing donations and have put in dozens of late-night hours sorting cans of food to dispense to the shelter in Ashland (taking me back to the days of packing food for Oregon’s Post Office Food Drive). Our gym currently acts as bunk room and mess hall for families who have lost their homes and storage space for the enormous mountain of donations the Club has received. The outpouring of support has been amazing, and volunteers at the Club have been putting in 110% nonstop for the last week. I’ve had the chance to meet some incredible new people and seen the monumental things they can accomplish in the midst of a crisis. We’ve had visits from the governor, both Montana’s Senators and our sole Representative, and Jan Napolitano of Homeland Security may be the next visitor we get. Local TV stations and journalists have become regular visitors, and tomorrow MSNBC will be stopping by.

The last several nights have seen me watering the garden at 2 AM, at the first break I’ve had. Because of the chaos at the Club, our plants have been low-priority. There have been days when Lame Deer has been at risk of running out of water, and so the garden has gone dry. Although it was hard to sacrifice the garden, I am grateful for every little thing I can do to make a difference. Luckily the water is back on, and there were only a few fatalities in the pumpkin patch.  

Life is going to continue to be crazy at least through the end of the week. The Club is going to remain open as a shelter for a couple more days, and we are anxiously keeping an eye on this fire (the “Ash Creek” fire) and the “Bad Horse” fire to the west, both of which remain largely uncontained and unpredictable. A potential thunderstorm tonight could bring relief in the form of rain, but also presents enormous danger because this region is a giant tinderbox, and a single lightening strike could spell disaster. There will be no fireworks this Fourth of July, and the annual Pow-Wow may be canceled. 

With less than twenty days to go in my term of service, I can’t help but laugh that Eastern Montana isn’t going to let me go out on an easy note. Every time I’ve overcome a challenge, a newer and bigger one has risen to take its place. Although I miss spending time in the garden with Club kids, working the shelter is equally rewarding and satisfying work, and I am so grateful for all of the wonderful people I have gotten to know through this experience.

If you want to read my update on the Montana FoodCorps blog, check here:  http://www.montanafoodcorps.org/2012/07/many-hats.html