There’s a blog post on Camp ASCCA’s website called “How Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief saved our summer,” and camp director Matt Rickman said they mean it.
“We’re pretty resilient, and we would’ve tried to figure it out, but the disaster relief team has been a lifesaver,” Rickman said.
Camp ASCCA — which stands for Alabama’s Special Camp for Children and Adults — hosts camp sessions in Jacksons’ Gap for those with intellectual, physical and developmental disabilities. And on June 29, just as they were checking in campers for their third session of the summer, a tree next to the dining hall got hit by lightning.
“The current went through and blew up the electrical and started a little fire,” Rickman said.
TEXAS FLOODING RELIEF: Learn more about how you can help support Disaster Relief efforts involving central Texas flood damage.
Help ‘out of the blue’
Everyone was safe, but the damage was going to take a month or two to sort out and repair, he said. They started sending home the campers who had just arrived.
And then Rickman got a call out of the blue.
“He mentioned his daughter worked here like 20 years ago and she had seen about the damage and said, ‘That’s such an awesome place, I wish we could help them,’” Rickman said.
The “he” was David Hendon, a volunteer leader for Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief, and his daughter, Linnea Elliott, was the one who saw Camp ASCCA’s Facebook post.
“I told him about the Alabama Baptist Disaster Relief mass feeding team and asked if he was interested, and he said he sure was,” Hendon said.
Becky Noland, state mass feeding coordinator for ABDR, went to meet with Rickman along with Chad Middlebrooks, director of missions for the local Tallapoosa Baptist Association. All Rickman asked for was one week of help.
“We told him we could do three teams and go three weeks,” Noland said. “But then we found out he had four weeks of camp left, so we said we can cook all four, there’s no reason we can’t do that.”
‘Something really special’
She said relief washed over Rickman’s face.
“He started crying,” she said. “I told our crews this is something really special, to get to come alongside them like this.”
The first crew started serving meals yesterday (July 7). This week’s session is for teenagers and features a prom at the end of the week.
“When we aren’t helping after hurricanes and tornadoes, we love to have opportunities like this,” Noland said, noting that in June they were also able to cook for a Carpenters for Christ group rebuilding a tornado-damaged church in Pine Level.
Rickman said he “can’t say enough good things” about the ABDR feeding team.
“Their professionalism and kindness — everyone is so nice and sweet,” he said. “It really has been a lifesaver.”
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