Wisconsin Ag Connection - United Cooperative Employee Participates in Disaster Relief

Wisconsin Ag News Headlines

United Cooperative Employee Participates in Disaster Relief
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 06/16/2008

Kathy Roloff, Reedsburg United Cooperative Cenex Convenience Store employee, awoke early Friday morning knowing her day, and every day for a questionable amount of time, was going to be far different than her normal routine. Her store manager temporarily relieved her from her regular employment schedule so she could donate her time to the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief team serving Wisconsin flood victims. This dedicated group started cooking meals for flood recovery volunteers and citizens battling the tribulations of an extensive amount of rain in a very short period of time.

This relief effort is based at the Trinity Baptist Church of Reedsburg. Disaster relief members cook approximately 5,000 meals per day for an unknown amount of days. Hot meals are loaded onto American Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles and hauled to several flood traumatized locations, such as Wisconsin Dells, Rock Springs, Reedsburg, Portage, Sauk City/Prairie du Sac, North Freedom, LaValle, and surrounding areas.

The Southern Baptist Disaster Relief is a partnership ministry of the state Baptist conventions and the North American Mission Board Southern Baptist Convention. They provide physical, emotional, and spiritual help to victims of natural and man-made disasters, including floods.

Roloff says there are 46 disaster relief units in the United States, and the 20,000-member Minnesota Wisconsin Baptist Convention is one of them. Roloff is a member of the Minnesota Wisconsin group through the Trinity Baptist Church. She even took a 10-day tour of duty helping hurricane Katrina victims following the disastrous storm.