It started with a text message. Canby High School first-year student and Future Farmers of American member Rylee Sullivan texted Canby FFA adviser Patty Abell Thursday with the idea to go “feed the linemen” who have been working 24/7 for over a week to restore power to a region devastated by the worst ice storm in the past 50 years.
The FFA collected donations from businesses and individuals, ultimately buying and hand-delivering 14 pizzas from Fultano’s (they gave the club a discount), coffee donated by Starbucks and The Human Bean, snacks donated by Cutsforth’s Market and water donated by Millar’s Point S Tire & Auto.
“I am extremely proud of my FFA kids the past 24 hours,” Abell said. “These kids were great at getting donations and two moms [Michele Sullivan and Shawna Welander] spearheaded the whole thing. A good portion of those who showed up today are still without power for the seventh day and they wanted to say ‘thank you’ for working so hard.”
The students made 10 stops wherever they could find crews at work which is, well, pretty much anywhere outside of Canby city limits these days. The stops included out by Pat’s Acres Racing Complex on Arndt Road, Township Road and Barlow Road out toward Ninety-One School in Hubbard.
“I am super proud of them for stepping up and doing this,” Abell told The Canby Current. “They realize that there are people out there working around the clock to get their electricity back on, and they wanted to say ‘thank you’ for putting in the time. They are a great bunch of kids for putting this together so quickly.”
The students plan to make the rounds again next week. “As long as they are around fixing lines,” Abell said. Which, unfortunately, will be for a while yet.
Donate to the cause @erika-shearer on Venmo.
Photos courtesy Patty Abell:
