'HEROES AND NEIGHBORS' TREATED TO BARBECUE MEALS
Volunteers from Operation BBQ Relief were cooking between 200 and 400 meals for the community this week.
Big Foot High School Football athletes were on the serving line, giving out meals to families at Thursday's Operation Barbecue Relief event.
A large tree can still be seen on the side of the road, a week after a severe storm blew through the area.
Power has been restored throughout the county, but some of the hardest hit areas still have non-active lines hanging through the debris.
Andy Feest, Wisconsin area coordinator for Operation BBQ, loaded a Walworth County sheriff's Office vehicle with meals to be taken back to WCSO headquarters.
Operation Barbecue Relief and Como Community Church hosted meals July 9 and 10 for "heroes and neighbors" in Walworth County who were affected by the severe storm that struck the area July 3.
The events were supported by food donations from several businesses and meat markets in the area.
"Our primary mission is to go into disaster areas during the initial mass feeding gap and fill that mass feeding gap," said Andy Feest, the non-profit's area coordinator for Wisconsin.
While the organization usually arrives immediately after a disaster, Feest explained that for smaller areas, it arrives about a week after.
"In the initial response, the small communities do such a good job coming in and providing food and everything like that, which is really a sign of a healthy community," Feest said. "But one thing that is happening is sometimes, about a week later, it starts to get tough. And they start noticing 100 meals, we could use 100 meals, or 200 meals on these days. Through some contacts, and people through different people, the request came back to Operation Barbecue Relief of could you guys provide a couple hundred meals on Thursday and a couple on Friday, and we said, absolutely."
Feest said the area is becoming the new tornado alley, with more tornadoes and severe storms than most of the West or Southwest, a sentiment that many community members spoken to over the week agreed with.
"The weather's been crazy," Feest said. "There's no other way to put it. You know, last year during the hurricane season, we didn't have to respond to a single hurricane. And normally our hurricane responses are overwhelming. So, we're kind of waiting to see how it goes this year."
According to Anthony Miceli, Town of Geneva chief of police, fire and police operations are back to full operations, and power and roads in the area were about 90-95% open less than a week after the July 3 storm.
"This town's always been one community, one town, and always works together," Miceli said. "Always been together, always. If someone needs something, they always help each other out."
Miceli wanted to thank all the volunteers who came out to help, including the Big Foot High School football team, who he contacted to see if they wanted to serve food during the two days of meal giving.
"What happened was really sad, so I'm just glad we could all come and help out," said Matteo Aguilera, a Big Foot football player.
Aguilera said that the team's new coach, Kyle Collins, was the one who got the ball rolling to provide help and he hopes the team continues to come together for their community.
Big Foot High School is about 30 minutes away from the church, making the impact of the young athletes helping out much more important.
Feest said small towns truly come together to help each other.
Operation Barbecue Relief does more than just respond after disasters, it also hosts "Blue Sky Events" for veterans, members of the military and first responders.
More information about volunteering is available at https:// operationbbqrelief.org/.
