Kid's project to help Oklahoma tornado victims!

 I have always been impressed on how Jason F. Wright, writes and when you read his books, how you often want to go out and make a difference in the world. Well, obviously Jason and his wife have taught that same principle of giving ...to their kids. Look at the idea they came up with!

Kids launch toy crane, stuffed animal project for Oklahoma tornado victims

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June 11, 2013

My children have always enjoyed playing the toy crane machines that guard the entrances of grocery stores, malls, restaurants and arcades. Kason Wright, my 9-year-old son, has such a high success rate that the folks who service these machines coordinate their restocking schedule with his allowance day.
We often joke that if dropping out of elementary school and turning pro were an option, he'd hold a press conference, hire an agent and line up sponsorship deals.
My wife reminds me the kids come by their toy crane prowess honestly. I've been playing the toy crane since the toys were slathered in lead paint and the cost was just a nickel. Even now as an old-timer on the toy-crane circuit I'll often stop to play when I'm on my own. "Never let the skills go rusty," I tell myself.
One night last week, I listened as the boys giggle-chatted in the backseat about their embarrassment of stuffed-animals riches after a particularly successful stop at our local Walmart in Woodstock, Va. Kason and his 6-year-old brother, Koleson, had just won three times on our way out of the store.
Then, before we'd even left the shopping center parking lot, Kason asked the kind of question parents live for. "Dad, what if we sent all our toy crane prizes to the kids in Oklahoma who lost their stuffed animals in the tornado?"
I stopped the car and looked over my shoulder. "Really?"
"Well, we've got lots and some of those kids probably lost all of their stuffed animals."
It was yet another reminder that my children's goodness surpasses mine in almost every imaginable way.
By the time we pulled in to the driveway, Kason and Koleson had decided that their friends might also want to send their own toy crane prizes and other stuffed animals. They dubbed it The Toy Crane Project and made plans for a website to invite others to join their mission.
Later that night my wife and two daughters returned home and I listened as the boys laid out their idea. There's nothing quite like hearing your 6-year-old son describe with pure giddiness his plans to build a website with pictures, video and "infostructions."
Over the next few days, the boys began telling people about their project and started sorting through their own stash of stuffed animals. Meanwhile, longtime family friend Eric Farnsworth helped with graphics, Aaron Lee compiled a highlight reel for YouTube and Stephen Funk donated both expertise and Web space for the site.
Before details had even been announced, good pals Stuart Freakley and his young daughter, Anna, were on our porch donating the very first collection of stuffed animals. Kason and Koleson got their older sisters excited about the project, too, and organized piles of stuffed critters began appearing on the floor.
Thanks to our good friends at the Shenandoah County Chamber of Commerce, we soon had a drop-off location for local donations and a mailing address for others who might wish to help from a distance. Anyone who knows her - or the spirit of the chamber - wasn't surprised that Jenna French, executive director, couldn't say "Yes!" fast enough.
Just like that, in less than a week, the desire to do good went from a dream hatched in the backseat of our car to plush reality.
Hours before the website and video went live, I asked Kason what he hoped the Toy Crane Project would accomplish. "I want to help make the kids in Oklahoma happy and feel loved and cared for."
"I think you just might do that," I answered.
If you'd like to join the project, please send your new or very gently used toy crane prizes or other stuffed animals to the Shenandoah County Chamber of Commerce, Attention Toy Crane Project, 103 S. Main Street, Woodstock, VA 22664. Please include your name and return address.
Donations will be sorted and delivered to Oklahoma in stages throughout the summer. If volume surpasses the need, donations will be stored until opportunity arises in other areas. If we've learned anything this year, it's that we do not control the when and where of disaster, we only control the response.
So, whether you're a fan of toy cranes or not, whether you're a child or an adult, whether you live in Virginia, Utah or points in between, you are invited to join the childlike dream of two boys with a simple plan. With your help, we can "make the kids in Oklahoma happy and feel loved and cared for." Read more of Jason's work  here:

We have a work to do!

It is interesting to see how fast the world pulls together when we are in crisis. I loved this article by Jason Wright, it shares some insight into the work we have to do. It really made me stop and think about what I can do right now for those in need. Good night dear friends!

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May 21, 2013

By now the world knows that on Monday, just before 3 p.m. local time, a massive tornado touched down near Oklahoma City. We've witnessed how it shredded the nearby suburb of Moore like a city made of wooden Tinker Toys. But with rescue workers still sifting through twisted steel and bare trees stripped of leaves and bark, there is so much more we do not know.
We know the tornado brought winds up to 200 mph and a funnel cloud and debris field two miles wide. But we do not know the total devastation to homes, businesses and schools.
We know that many people have died, but we do not know how high the death toll will rise.
We know that many of the victims were children, but we do not know their names, ages or whether they liked toy cars or action heroes, soccer or ballet, dolls or stuffed animals. Those tender details will come.
Like many of you, I've watched hours of the live coverage broadcast from mountains of rubble and rippled asphalt parking lots. Stories are emerging of friends, neighbors and strangers saving lives. A witness spoke of one good Samaritan pulling a dead woman and her infant child from a collapsed convenience store.
Good Samaritan, indeed.
As the anecdotes roll in, I wonder why it sometimes takes such tragedy for our hearts to fully engage with one another. Does it seem we're all a little kinder after school shootings, marathon bombings and natural disasters? Don't we love our fellowmen on the good days, too?
What else do we know?
We've seen recovery footage featuring volunteers climbing up and around dangerous piles of rubble that appear as if they might collapse like a Jenga tower. Their bravery reminds us that God could do this work if he wanted to, but he expects us to be his hands.
We know he could pull people from trapped cars, put out fires or carry a stranger's body from ruins to a resting place. No, he doesn't need our help - he wants it.
Heartbreak of this EF-4 magnitude tornado teaches us that our Father in heaven is a God of perfect miracles, but often the day-to-day heavenly miracles come through imperfect, earthly hands.
We know that tragedies only teach us if we allow ourselves to learn from them. Perhaps the tragedies of the past few months have reminded us that the best way to honor those who've lost their lives is to be more kind, more patient and more loving.
The new angels with Oklahoma accents would want you to hold your wife a bit longer, to kiss your husband goodbye, to hug your kids until they squirm away and to call your mother just a little more often.
In coming days we will ask the wind in quiet whispers just how we can join the work. Specific opportunities will certainly arise to donate time, money and, for some, expertise. But there's no need to wait for an invitation.
Because when you spend time on your knees on behalf of Oklahoma, you're doing God's work.
Because when you shed a tear for victims you've never met or weep openly for a mother who will never again tuck in her little one, you're doing God's work.
Perhaps we already know more than we realize about this devastating tornado. Recovery in all its forms is truly God's work, and there's plenty of it to do.
Let's get started.
Read more of Jason's articles here:

"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another." ~ Charles Dickens

Healing but not healed.

Today in church one of the speakers spoke of Service and how vital it is that we stand willing and ready to help any of our brothers and sisters in need. He then told of his experience of going to Joplin, MO just hours after the terrible tornado hit. He was heading there for business, but ended up doing a whole different type of work...service. His voice broke as he related heart wrenching stories and experiences that he witnessed while in Joplin, MO

He ended, reading a letter that had been broadcast over the air ways in Joplin. It was from a professor who had been through such an experience himself, and knew first hand what they were up against. This was his service to them. It was amazing, profound and truly a gift. Please take time to read it and be grateful for the many blessings in your life, and please continue to keep the people in Joplin, MO in your thoughts and prayers.

A letter to Joplin, from a Tuscaloosa Professor    May 26, 2011

To the good people of Joplin, Missouri:

This will get worse before it gets better. I know this only because of what I’ve observed from my own firsthand experiences in Tuscaloosa, Ala., a city much like yours that was ravaged a month prior to your own disaster.

Likely, you watched from afar, which is precisely what we do now; our cities forever wedded by our shared season of misfortune.

Allow me to share with you a difficult truth:

In the coming hours and days your death count is likely to rise. Cell phone reception will return — which, on the surface, seems like a good thing — though this increased communication will bring mostly bad news.

People will begin to understand who was lost and how and as their stories sift from the rubble, it will soon become clear that everybody knows somebody now gone. You will begin hearing stories, though unlike the phone calls, not all of them will end badly. Like the one where the bathtub blows away but the family remains safely inside.

A dog will be pulled unscathed from the rubble, or even more unbelievable (though true) will survive two full weeks on broken legs until reunited with his family. Be sure to take your comfort where you can.

If your city is like our city, then soon, people will begin to endow the storm with a conscience. They will talk about how the tornado leveled one house but left another, how it made that choice. You will begin fitting nature’s lunacy into some strange logic, bring God into the equation and speak of “master plans” not yet revealed to His flock. This is a good technique, and one that we have found to be quite useful in Tuscaloosa. The fitting together of pieces offers the same distraction as any good puzzle — providing an outlet to busy oneself when the mind is in need of a rest.

I should warn you, also, that you will soon be inundated with a storm of another sort. Everyone will want to help you, and even those of you who were spared the worst of it will receive a knock on your door, someone pleading with you to take a bottle of water.

Accept it.

This is a small gift from a person who feels as helpless as you do, and even if the good you are doing feels not good enough, just remember you’re helping by taking it.

I write to you today in the hopes that my recent experiences here might offer you a momentary glimpse into your future.

One month from today, you will not be healed, but healing.

The scrap will be piled like bunkers alongside the roads, and eventually, even the choir of sirens will dissipate. One day soon, cars will once again outnumber ambulances, and in a few weeks time, you’ll see a child throw a Frisbee and for a moment, forget that anything more treacherous ever collected in the wind.

I knew our cities were linked when I watched the on-site meteorologist from the Weather Channel choke up while on the air.

He was describing your world turned inside out, your people stumbling, when he broke from his narrative to admit that Joplin “looks very reminiscent of what we saw last month in (pause) Tuscaloosa.”

His pause seems to say everything that we could not, reminding me of one final piece of advice I humbly bestow upon you today: You will find, I think, that the inexplicable nature of nature is another hard-earned side effect of your troubles. For a month now, I have been trying to write my way out of disaster, but it is still here, and it will be with us until all the words run out.

Yet words can provide comfort as well, and if, in the future, you find that your own experiences might prove useful for another storm-torn town, I encourage you to write to them as I have written to you.

Remind them that while today appears dreary, all forecasts point to sunnier days ahead.

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"Hope is putting faith to work when doubting would be easier."  ~Author Unknown