When a devastating and record-breaking flood washed over Louisiana in August, police and the Louisiana National Guard were among those rescuing and assisting state residents. A few weeks later, a different group in uniform joined the relief effort.
The Order of the Arrow, the Boy Scouts of America’s honor society, launched the Southern Region ReliefCorps’ Operation Louisiana Relief within days the disaster.
Registration for the project began Aug. 18 and will continue through Nov. 30.
The scouts were given the task of helping out in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Monroe and New Orleans, as well as Jackson, Mississippi.
John Williams, a 19-year-old Mississippi State University student, serves as section chief for Section 1A. He was with the other section chiefs and Southern Region leaders at a regional meeting in Alabama when the flooding began.
“It was really tough because we were watching the reports, watching the water rise and the rain pour in. Everybody took a moment to pray at the church service,” Williams said.
While driving back to his Starkville campus, the Lake Charles-native said he heard more reports about the flooding. He sent an email to the other southern region section chiefs.
“Their response was, ‘How can we help?’ or, ‘We’re praying for you,’” Williams said. “The response of everyone wanting to come together and help with this was moving.”
The ReliefCorps has been activated three previous times — in 2011, 2013 and last year. In 2011 and 2013, the ReliefCorps provided aid after Alabama and Oklahoma were hit by tornadoes. Last year, support went to South Carolina when parts of that state experienced record flooding.
Southern Region chief Jeff Sedlacek, a 20-year-old Appalachian State University student, said he contacted the coordinator from the South Carolina project. The operation there was a good model for the Louisiana disaster because it “raised a significant amount of money and provided a significant amount of service,” he said.
The ReliefCorps takes a two-pronged approach. One side deals with service projects, which usually include local Order of the Arrow lodges and Boy Scout troops helping affected communities. The other is a fundraising element in which patches are sold and the proceeds donated to the American Red Cross.
Sedlacek said John Williams and Section 1A adviser Frank Williams are coordinating the service aspect, while Southern Region adviser Andy Chapman is working with the fundraising element.
“My involvement is coordinating everything,” Sedlacek said. “John, Frank and Andy have spearheaded this since they’re in the local area.”
Chapman, University alumnus, said he had been in contact with leaders as far away as Los Angeles. Those lodges contributed in a variety of ways, he noted, depending on their distance from the affected area.
“Those who aren’t close by, where it’s not really realistic for them to drive, like Austin, Texas for example, they’re doing a resource drive.”
According to the region’s website, the only requirement for a project is that it must benefit the community and not the BSA or the local council. Sedlacek said the project goes hand in hand with the ideal of scouting’s Order of the Arrow, also referred to as “The Brotherhood of Cheerful Service.”
“It’s going to take such a long time to fix all the homes that were destroyed and to help all the people,” Williams said. “If anybody thinks somebody else is going to take care of it and that they don’t need to do anything, they’re wrong. There is something everybody can do.”