Thankful citizen

Dear Editor,

On Monday, June 2 at 11:30 a.m., I found out what a great community we live in.

As I watched my house burn and the fire department doing their job (risking their lives to save every thing they could for practically no money at all) neighbors started offering assistance with whatever they could do. The biggest thing that was going through my mind was where were my wife and three kids and myself were going to stay.

That is when my mother showed up with 2 keys to Super 8 Motel. As the day went on the fire department did a wonderful job getting the fire out, and figuring out what the cause was.

Then the insurance adjuster came. When he showed up he wanted to know what started it for sure, not wanting to take my word for it. I called Fire Chief Marc Harpham who in turn called firefighter, paramedic and investigator Mark Eiler on his day off. Mark then explained the situation. As they were just finishing up chief Harpham asked if we needed food and such. Knowing that we did he made a phone call to Barb Ostrum from the American Red Cross who set us up the best she could which was more than we had ever expected.

As the week went on more offerings and phone calls and cards came in. I just want to let everybody that helped out know how much we appreciate it.

A special thanks to Mark Harpham, Mark Eiler, the paid staff and the volunteers of the Mccook Fire Department and also the rural fire department, as well as to all of the employees of the city of McCook who offered so much to help out -- including but not limited to Doyle, Bev, Betsy, Marty, Don, Greg, Larry, and every body else who offered support and such. All of the community who did the same and my family. I know I am missing someone and for that I am sorry. I just want everybody in the community to know how wonderful and caring this community is when someone is in need.

In closing I would just like to remind every body to support the American Red Cross and all of the people in the community who risk their lives to make it a better place to live for practically no pay. Without them we would have nothing left.

Thank you all so much.

Kevin Manley

McCook