Great Scott

Yesterday I worked a shift at Scott School distribution center on Highway 78 at the edge of the Pratt City tornado devastation. It is an amazing place, consisting of the traditional brick school with a long hall from end to end, classrooms lining both sides, and the parking lot in the back.

It was Sunday afternoon, two and a half weeks after the storm hit. Volunteer groups streamed in and out, some working at the center, some going out into the neighborhoods to remove debris and replace tarps. A continuous line of cars, vans and trucks slowly moved through the back parking lot, some dropping off needed items, some picking up. An interesting place for people watching. The Church of Scientology had a volunteer group there to do anything they could to help. The Seventh Day Adventists brought two trucks and trailers packed with a few hundred hygiene boxes. The driver pridefully displayed his backing skills as he snaked the trailer through a small gate, around a corner, and close to the back steps. A church van from an independent Church of God brought bags for children, filled with books, crayons, paper, and fun stuff. The list is long.

I don't know that I have ever experienced such graciousness as exhibited by the volunteers who run the center, almost all of whom live in Pratt City. Everyone is welcome. Every donation is honored (even all those clothes, for as long as they could possibly take them) Every volunteer is given work to do.

And they smile. And they laugh. Especially if a volunteer shows up whose name is Robert Bentley. Sometimes the weariness shows through, but it never overcomes the deep joy of these neighbors helping neighbors.

And every few hours a cook-out breaks out. Hamburgers, hot dogs, fish, whatever is available.
It wouldn't be right to insult anyone, so I sampled it all.

I overheard a couple of red cross workers talking. They were saying that the system that the center was using for distribution was the best they had seen. Everything was organized, sorted and stored in classrooms along the hall, delivered and distributed from grocery carts that roll up and down and outside and back. And they developed a strict registration system to hold folks accountable for how much aid they received from day to day, which is kind of touchy for outsiders.

But that is one of the beauties of this place. There are some things a friend and neighbor can get away with saying that a well intentioned outsider just cannot do.

I was amazed at how much activity there still is at that place. But there is still so much work to do. There are still so many people trying to salvage severely damaged homes. It will be so for a long while.

But if anyone can make it happen, those folks at the Scott School can. For more information on volunteering, visit Hands-On Birmingham


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