Published: January 30, 2009 11:07 pm      

Volunteers, agency unite to care for needs in Rush community

Rush — Waiting for electrical service to be restored, volunteers and Red Cross officials have combined forces to provide hot meals and meet other needs in the Rush community.

Dickie Tiller, pastor of Liberty Missionary Baptist Church, said an estimated 100 to 150 responded to the word-of-mouth invitation for a vegetable soup meal Thursday evening. Volunteers had no way of knowing how many would seek lunch and dinner Friday, he said.

“We don’t know. We just serve food until we run out,” said Tiller, explaining a group of about 10 from various Southern Baptist churches worked to cook the food at Liberty, and others helped distribute the meals at Rush Baptist Chapel. Members of the Norton Branch Volunteer Fire Department also helped deliver the meals.

“It’s pretty bad out at Rush,” Tiller said, describing families using kerosene heaters to warm food as they endure the cold and powerless circumstances. The volunteers have also scrambled to help people who needed medical supplies, including insulin and oxygen, he said.

Volunteers working to distribute the meals at Rush chapel, which is also without electricity, relied upon generators for heat and lights Friday, Tiller said.

Friday’s lunch consisted of beef stew with rice, canned peaches and bottled water, he said. The volunteers planned to make a spaghetti dinner for the evening meal, he said.

Tiller also said he was hopeful the community’s electrical service would be restored before day’s end, citing service crews working nearby in an effort to get power back to the nearby Ramey-Estep Homes and high school. A few hours later, Tiller was pleased to report crews had succeeded in restoring power to the children’s home and school, the church and homes along Ky. 845 in the Boyd County portion of the Rush community.

Tiller estimated church members and firefighters delivered and served between 100 and 125 lunch meals Friday, although they anticipated increased demand for the evening meal, which had been advertised through signs posted throughout the immediate area.

While delivering a load of spaghetti between the churches late Friday afternoon, Tiller said volunteers were already working to open a Saturday night shelter at Kilgore United Methodist Church for families who still are without electricity.

Harold Moore of Rose Hill Baptist Church credited the local Red Cross, as well as members of the Greenup Baptist Association Disaster Team, for the response to people’s needs in the Rush community.

Residents of the Rush community in need of meals or other resources because of the power outage may call the Rush chapel at (606) 928-6611.

TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2651.