A weather event in April may not be unusual in our part of the world, but this spring storm and its outcome was a memory-maker. It has been a difficult week for everyone in our region and we know that for some, issues with electricity aren’t yet over.The good news is that neighbors have been helping neighbors with grace, compassion, and generosity. In addition to other examples of mutual support happening across the area, we were able to open our school as a community shelter thanks to available staff and volunteers.“I would especially like to thank Jaime Davis, Lara Meade, Joe Gross, Jeff Reandeau (and kids), Roy Marshall, Kim Marshall, Scott Allen, Sadie Allen, Eric Wentworth, Alison Parrott, and Shirley DeForest for volunteering their time to be here to help families and/or stay for longer shifts to enable overnight access to the building," Superintendent Georgia Gonzalez said. "I also want to thank Deanna Shoemaker and Barbie Hillman for back-and-forth phone calls to ensure we had food, custodial coverage, and the ability to open the building. Even students offered to help – Matt Wetterer, we appreciate you and thank you for your availability. Special thanks go out to Gail Burpee, our district clerk, and others for diligence and hard work in trying to get information out as quickly as possible. As always, we are all grateful to the Board of Education for their support.”All of us at school also want to thank everyone on social media for stepping up when we needed help. Due to the absence of electricity, internet access, and even cell phone data connection at times, we were not able to consistently use our standard tools for reaching families with information about school closures and shelter. We asked you for help sharing important information on Facebook, and you all delivered. Because of your active post shares, many more families and community members received information they needed and were able to get warm, shower, eat, and charge devices. “The willingness of our Viking family to chip in where needed made me extremely proud to be a Viking,” added Mrs. Gonzalez. “Thank you very much, each of you. I deeply appreciate everything everyone did to make this difficult situation as positive as possible.”Our building remains open on Thursday, April 21 for those who still need it. Families can arrive after 5 pm, but sheltering will close at 6 am Friday, April 22 as staff and students come to school. Power restoration is expected to be completed by the end of the day Friday, at which time we hope all in our community should be back to normal.Again, thank you everyone.
Thank you, everyone
April 21, 2022