Storm-hit town returns Sedalia’s favor

Published Wednesday, June 7, 2006

SEDALIA (AP) - When the people of Sedalia saw their sister city of McComb, Miss., suffering in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, they didn’t hesitate to send checks. Charity workers in McComb returned the favor this week, sending nearly $2,000 in donations to help the community in west central Missouri recover from a deadly March tornado, a local minister said yesterday.

"When we heard about the situation in Sedalia, we felt like we needed to do what we could," said Don Dick, president of the McComb Ecumenical Council of Ministers. "When the city of Sedalia so graciously aided our community in our time of need, it certainly made a difference."

The Mississippi group raised the funds through donations and sent the $1,944.85 gift to Missouri charities as a surprise.

The money will be distributed among three organizations that helped victims of the March 12 tornado.

The Sedalia Salvation Army and the American Red Cross of Pettis County will get $750 each, and the Pettis County Ministerial Association will receive $444.85.

"It’s really heartwarming. We really pitched in to help McComb, so it’s nice that they saw the need to return the thought," said Valarie Swanson, executive director of Pettis County chapter of the American Red Cross.

After Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in September, Sedalia sent two truckloads of goods and more than $25,000 in cash to McComb, which it adopted as its sister city.

McComb’s reciprocal donation will fund vouchers issued to victims of the March 12 storm and will buy supplies to prepare for the next disaster, Swanson said.

Officials at the Pettis County Ministerial Association said they were still figuring out how to use the unexpected gift.

"It speaks so well of the people and churches in McComb to do this and to do it so generously," said Drew Hill, the association’s president. "When you give to people with such an overwhelming need, you don’t expect anything in return."