Wallace Design Collective

Last summer, my family was sitting around the house watching the news about the flash flooding in Manitou Springs, Colorado, which was the result of downpours on the Waldo Canyon burn scar, a devastating forest fire in 2012 that covered 18,247 acres and forced us to evacuate from our home. That is a blog for another day. Due to the flash flooding, cars were getting swept away on Highway 24 by the high, fast-moving water and several businesses in Manitou Springs had to close down due to the floods that swept through their restaurants and shops. Water and mud flowed into the buildings and filled the basements of businesses that parallel the creek that runs through town. Many buildings had water, mud and debris reaching 3-6 feet deep in their basements.

I have a hard time just sitting around and hearing about devastation on TV and not being able to do anything about it (especially when it is just 30 minutes away); so, we decided we HAD to do something. That Sunday, my (then 12-year old) daughter and I went down to Manitou Springs. We didn’t know what we were going to do, we just knew we needed to help. As we got closer, we saw more and more debris and mud all over the highway. We knew it wasn’t going to be a pretty sight.

When we got to Manitou Springs, we signed in at the volunteer station, put on our work gloves and headed down the street toward the flooded buildings. We grabbed buckets and started bailing water, sludge and debris out of basements of flooded businesses. The amount of volunteers that showed up and the teamwork displayed was just amazing. I was also very proud of my daughter for wanting to go with me and help out. What a great lesson to teach the next generation!

Walt Disney’s favorite song was “Feed The Birds”, from the movie Mary Poppins. The song is about providing generosity, kindness and stewardship to others. One day, just as Dick Sherman was almost finished playing the song for him, he heard Walt say, “Yep. That’s what it’s all about.”

One of my favorite songs is called “Do Something”, by Matthew West. “I shook my fist at Heaven and said, ‘God, why don’t You do something?’ He said, ‘I did, I created you’.”

The chorus goes like this:

“If not us, then who
If not me and you
Right now, it’s time for us to do something
If not now, then when
Will we see an end
To all this pain
It’s not enough to do nothing
It’s time for us to do something”

So, whether you respond to a disaster in your community, help build a house with Habitat for Humanity, or run in a race to raise money for your favorite charity; just get out there and Do Something!