By BERRY CRAIG
AFT Local 1360
President John Coomes and two dozen volunteers from the Henderson-based Tri-County Council of Labor are helping collect food, water, clothing “and just about anything anybody can use” for tornado victims in western Kentucky.
Added Coomes: “We felt there was a need. You look at the devastation. It’s not like you can put up a wall and put people back in their houses. They have nowhere to live, nothing to eat, no clothes, no nothing. We felt like we needed to do something.”
So they headed for the local National Guard Army and offered their services sorting and boxing up items desperately needed in Mayfield, Dawson Springs and Bremen, the hardest hit communities in the region.
President Joe Biden is scheduled to view the destruction in Mayfield and Dawson Springs on Thursday.
“People in Henderson have really been generous,” said Coomes.
The armory is piled high with bottled water, canned goods, clothes, bedding, personal hygiene products and other items that will be trucked to the three communities laid waste by a powerful tornado Friday night.
Coomes said the council is well known locally for benefitting Henderson. “We built a small ‘perch park,' built a gazebo in Central Park and put up a flagpole for the local World War II Memorial—all free of charge.”
Coomes and Kevin Walton also put on labor history programs in local high schools. “We’ve been doing a lot of things for the community for a long time,” he said.