A newly-formed non-profit group is now working to help residents in a small northwest Iowa town rebuild their homes and lives after last year’s historic floods.
The Hawarden United Foundation is a completely new concept for the community, according to board member Cy McMahon.
“When the flood hit in June,” McMahon says, “we didn’t have any not-for-profit set up that was specifically designed to help the people of Hawarden in case of a disaster like this.”
In the immediate aftermath of the flooding Big Sioux River, residents got help in the form of food and a place to stay, but the rebuilding effort is a long-term process. McMahon says many residents still need assistance.
“Our role as Hawarden United Foundation is taking cash donations, financial donations, and using those donations to help homeowners buy building materials so that the volunteer groups can do the work and get more bang for their buck,” McMahon says. “So instead of having to pay a contractor for them to buy materials, we pay for the materials, and then we are having volunteer contractors, and so that has been a huge help.”
He says the foundation has been working alongside World Renew to help homeowners rebuild.
“It’s a volunteer group of skilled people who come in to help provide labor and expertise to fix up houses and all that the homeowners are responsible for, to come up with building materials that they use to help fix it up,” McMahon says. “Partnering with groups like that have made coming back possible.”
McMahon says anyone with home repair skills can still volunteer to help in the rebuilding effort. Donations can be made through the website HawardenUnitedFoundation.com.
(By John Slegers, KLEM, Le Mars)