Player's Perspective: Jacob Tebbe

Today's post was written by one of our family members, Jacob Tebbe. In it, he reflects on the recent trip he took with the team down to Henryville, Indiana to help with disaster relief efforts. Here's what Jacob has to say...

Henryville, Indiana is a small town in southern Indiana that got caught in the path of a devastating tornado. We went down to help the people of the community and tried to give back to a state that means so much to us. I, personally, went to Henryville because I felt thankful for all the blessings I have received and felt horrible for the people in Henryville who lost everything. I felt that it was the least I could do to help out for a day and make an impact on the community. The people of Henryville were extremely appreciative of our help and couldn't stop thanking us while we were there. They even wanted us to come back the following Monday.

At the warehouse, we worked to make bags of food for a family of four. We were given a list of things needed to be included in the food bag. The bags included items like noodles, cereal, fruit, rice, beans, and canned items like green beans and corn. The warehouse was unorganized and very scattered, so we worked to not only make the bags, but to make them more efficiently by first organizing the warehouse. Once the warehouse was organized, we worked diligently to make a large sum of bags to help many families in the area. It felt great to make an impact on the community and see that impact through our progress in making the bags. We packed 122 boxes of food. Each box feeds a family of four for a week!

Not only did we help the community of Henryville, but we also helped ourselves in becoming closer as a team. Family is our number one priority as a team and it was nice to see those relations improve, our family strengthen. At the warehouse, specifically, we had to work together to reach a common goal of making a maximum amount of food bags. We all worked together to make the assembly line and make the bags as fast as possible. These experiences not only were great team building exercises, but were also helping people at the same time. The trip was a great experience for everyone involved, and I'm glad we got the chance to give back to the community.