I got an email the other day from my former editor in Ohio. He had seen and read the reports of flooding around our area, and emailed to reminisce.

In August of 1993, I was the publisher of The Times-Reporter in New Philadelphia, Ohio. If you lived through the flood of 1993, you know what was going on here. In Ohio, we started picking up news items and pictures on the flooding in the River Bend. We were getting calls in the newsroom asking what could be done to help when the idea to have a community donation site came about.

A local radio station team from WTUZ in New Philadelphia wanted to help. And with a great theme (thought up by one of the radio folks) we launched “From the Heart to the Heartland” flood relief. The radio promoted the donation effort and the news paper continued to publish the details of the flooding and the effort to help.

Donations came from all over the county. Mops, buckets, cleansers, squeegees, towels, etc., were delivered to the newspaper’s parking lot on a designated Saturday. A bank account was established to handle cash donations. A local trucking company donated a 40-foot trailer, the truck, the fuel and a driver to deliver the collections to the local Salvation Army.

In about 4 hours, we stuffed that 40-foot trailer full to the the brim. And, if memory serves, we sent about $15,000 in cash relief along to the agency.

It’s hard to believe it has been 15 years already. My thoughts are with all displaced by the flood of 2008, especially those hard hit up river from us. Thankfully, our area didn’t need all the help we received in 1993.