A local church, the First Baptist Olive Church, has transformed its rooms into a mini mall organized with thousands of donations.
Everything from food, toiletries clothing, baby formula, car seats, toys, shoes, dishes, plates, silverware, dog and cat food, tools, shovels, gloves, goggles, flashlights, even giant sifting tools.
A church from Tulsa collected 700 large cases of bottled water and dropped them all off at the Olive church.
Wildfire victims are overwhelmed with the kindness from the hundreds of volunteers.
“I couldn't believe it, I just couldn't believe it how nice people are,” said Corina Walliser.
Walliser and her 12-year-old son Nicolas lost their home and are now driving 1500 miles to stay with family in Twin Falls, Idaho.
“Wow,” said Nicolas when he opened the care package the church put together just for him. “I can't believe they spent all their money on this for me.”
The church started collecting items last Friday right after the wildfires started. On Monday night they thought about putting out racks for all the donated clothing. Overnight metal for the racks appeared.
“We were talking about all this Monday night and Tuesday morning we had racks,” said Pastor Jeff Laughlin.
He has helped hundreds of victims.
“One man was looking for a certain size of jeans and a minute later someone said I have an odd size of jeans and sure enough it was the same size,” said Laughlin.
Another woman, LeNees Rowell, was covered in dirt form head to toe walked in looking for tools.
“I was losing everything my grandpa ever had,” cried Rowell.
She had 500 acres charred by the flames, including a couple barns that once belonged to her grandfather’s, he died ten years ago. She had been taking care of it since then.
“My dad asked my grandpa, when he was in the hospital dying, if he could get anything for him, and my grandpa told him you already gave me the best thing a grandpa could want, you gave me a granddaughter,” cried Rowell.
She felt guilty that she could not be there to help keep the fire away from her home. She was in Drumright at the time fighting another fire with the volunteer firefighters.
She did find something to laugh about though amongst all the heartache, the giant metal sifter, used to shake off ash from burnt treasures.
“I’m thinking about looking for gold to pay for this hay,” said Rowell.
On Sunday at 12:30 p.m.- 3:30 p.m. a BBQ fundraiser for local firefighters will take place at the Olive School cafeteria.
If you are able to donate to the First Baptist Olive Church, they need garden hoses, electrical cables, and garden rakes.
