Southwest Michigan Rallies To Support Tornado Victims With $20,000

The community of Southwest Michigan can officially say that they have raised over $20,000 for the victims of the Southwest Michigan tornadoes just by listening to the radio.

Branch County United Way will be working with Union City and the after-the-storm organization to prioritize where all our funding from all parties will go as part of the Union City Disaster Relief Fund.

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All funds that were raised will go to businesses to take care of the needs of all the individuals that United Way will be helping out.  These funds will be cut into checks.  Funds will be distributed on a need basis again, with prioritizing from the list of needs, and aid will be distributed at least 2 years before all homeowners are back into their homes that were damaged or lost.

Just over a week ago, multiple tornadoes took the lives of four people in southwest Michigan, and three cities have been working around the clock to recover from the devastation that was left behind.

The Monday after the tornadoes, I took to the air and said that I would not be leaving the studio until we raised $10,000 for the victims of Southwest Michigan on GoFundMe.

There were so many generous donations, as altogether 178 people donated to the cause. It was at around 3:30 PM that we had just passed the $9,000 point, which is when Dr. Mike Wetters called the station and told me, “ I’ve got great news… You’re going home.”

It caught me completely off guard, but he responded: “Yeah, you’re going home. Because I’m about to make a $1000 donation, which is going to put you over $10,000.”
I then declared, since it was going so well, I was gonna increase it to $15,000. Well, more donations continued to come in, and at the same time, while I was trying to get his information, two gentlemen showed up at the radio station, saying that they wanted to contribute to the cause as well.

One of them, Don Hodges, had heard that we were very close to hitting 10,000 so he came up to donate $1000.

Another guy, Tom, was also listening to the station, and he put it very simply:

I have a house, I have furniture, I have food and I’ve been blessed in my life. These people have nothing. Everything they had is now gone, so I want to do my part.

Tom donated $3300 to the cause which brought us over $15,000 in total. So my new goal was basically crushed right away.

From that point on, we wanted to make it a goal to make it to $20,000, and we are excited to announce that we have raised just that amount.

Altogether, we raised $20,030, which will go to United Way and be divided up amongst those who are in need of assistance.

I can’t thank the hundreds of donors enough for their generous donations, which all helped make this possible for our community. This is proof of what happens when you put your community first above everything else.

It may be a drop in the bucket considering what it will cost to repair the damage, but this was one of many fundraisers that are trying to help, and a difference maker for the people who have been affected by these storms.