Let me start by saying my thoughts and prayers are wholeheartedly with our neighbors in Marshalltown & Pella as they clean up from yesterday's devastating storms. A few of you have reached out to me regarding the subject line of yesterday's email newsletter, so let me explain. Our system schedules emails and often takes several minutes to send through to our full list; I was not aware that tornadoes had hit these areas until after the email had been sent. It was certainly not my intention to be tongue-in-cheek with such a serious situation, and honestly only meant to say I'm amazed by the generosity and helping-ness of our community.Fast forward to today, and I'm even more astounded at the generosity of our community. So many of you have reached out to see how you can help those in need. Here's what I can tell you: We're in touch with our colleagues in both Marshalltown & Pella. At this time, we ask that people wait to assist until they've had a chance to fully assess the damage and implement a call for volunteers. Please refrain from driving to these communities to see the damage. As soon as we're made aware of ways Grinnellians can assist, we'll share it here -- we appreciate your eagerness and generous offers to help our neighbors in need!
Original Post:
I'm Blown Away
Community means different things to different people at different times. Today, this is what community means to me: sharing goals, working together and helping one another. And that's just what our Farmers Market vendors did this afternoon. As the weather started rolling in from the west, we made the difficult decision to cancel the remainder of today's market as our priority is always safety. Within minutes, our vendors began breaking everything down (that they had literally JUST finished setting up!) and packing up vehicles. But what happened next was more amazing. Our team came out to help, customers started helping pack things away and vendors began helping each other until everyone had packed up and driven away.
We may not always agree with one another, and we may not always agree with the decisions someone else makes but let me tell you it was rewarding to see everyone pitch in to help their fellow Farmers Market Community. The amount of time, effort and work each of these vendors put into their day today to prepare for, setup and tear down market was immense, and they won't even see a penny of profit from it because they weren't open long enough to have any sales. Would you do me a favor and come downtown this Saturday morning from 10a-noon (several of our Thursday-only vendors will attend this Saturday's market due to today's storm!) and next Thursdayfrom 3-6pm to support these wonderful people?I'm proud to be part of this community every day, but this afternoon I'm blown away!
--Rachael Kinnick
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