OGT Missouri-Illinois Division hurricane relief volunteer truck drivers story in Land Line Magazine

Orphan Grain Train Missouri-Illinois Division and LCMS World Relief volunteers Craig Hansen and Ron Johnson of Saint Louis, Mo., have driven several semi loads of relief supplies to the hurricane relief and work centers along the Gulf Coast. Recently their efforts were highlighted in the March/April 2006 issue of Land Line Magazine, the official publication of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.

Article courtesy of Land Line Magazine: www.landlinemag.com

The calm after the storm

Hurricane season is over, but the relief effort continues

By David Tanner
Staff Writer
Land Line Magazine
www.landlinemag.com

OOIDA member Craig Hansen of St. Louis and retired trucker Ron Johnson of Fenton, MO, wanted to help out hurricane victims, so they went to church and asked if they could make a run.

Fourteen runs later - with several more on their schedule - Craig and Ron have no intention of slowing down.

"Each time we say it's going to be the last trip, but sure enough you get down there and you see a reason to come back," Craig said. "It's been that way for the last five trips."

Craig said even though the media coverage has switched gears in the hurricane-stricken southern states, there is a lot of work to be done. "They're still in a cleanup," Craig said. "The inland sections are pretty well recovered. Where there was water damage is still in rough shape."

The pair is making regular deliveries from the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod to a food pantry set up at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepard in Biloxi, MS.

"We thought, 'If these people are so broke that they've got to eat our canned goods, what are they going to do for Christmas?' " Craig remembered Ron saying to him this past fall. "So we started calling our friends and raising a little bit of donations."

Next thing they knew, their food trailer had a thousand toys added to it just prior to Christmas. Their wives, Debbie Hansen and Joann Johnson, bought the toys and did the shopping for the "Trucking Santas."

The first load went to Baton Rouge, LA, and several loads went to Washington Parish, LA, before the pair decided on Biloxi as a regular run. When the truckers get to their destinations, they get help from some unexpected sources.

"Where I've went, I've had jail prisoners unload me with big smiles, and they were happy to do it," Craig said. "The prisoners unboxed them and labeled them for the children, and the sheriff's deputies gave out the toys in the Franklinton (LA) area."

The rewards, they said, have far outweighed their expectations.

"I'm being more blessed by God in my life now than I've ever been, and I'm 50," Craig said. "I've made more friends and been able to help more people in the last four months than I've helped in the last 50 years."

Ron, 58, agrees with that assessment. "It's an experience I wouldn't trade a million bucks for," he said. "It's totally changed my life. You can't explain in words the feeling you get . They were astounded that somebody would come from halfway across to country to help them."

Church members in Biloxi were grateful to receive the assistance. "We couldn't have done it without them. Not only did they bring food, but they brought supplies for the relief effort on the coast," said church elder John Coyle. "You name it they brought it."

The Biloxi area, Coyle said, still lacks the proper food, labor and building materials in its recovery process. Craig and Ron will continue to help. Craig has been in trucking for 29 years. When he's not headed back and forth to the hurricane region, he hauls oversize loads around St. Louis to make ends meet.

"I've wondered if the church needed me or if I needed them," Craig said. "When fuel went up, the bottom dropped out for me. The phone quit ringing. I said, 'What the heck.' "

Craig said he and Ron could not do something like they have done without learning a lot about people and about themselves. "I come home now, and I appreciate my house more than I ever did before," Craig said. "There's still a need. As long as the church says go, I'll go. It's not what I would call a high paying trucking job, but it pays in other ways."