Stuff the Bus — Schools, businesses come through for Nebraska neighbors

Friday, March 22, 2019
Anna Hock took paper products from Shawn Carney, whose daughter Kalista was among student volunteers and members of the "Positive Behavior in Schools" team.
Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette

McCOOK, Neb. — The coordinator of a Southwest Nebraska schools' "Stuff the Bus" disaster relief effort was close to tears this morning as eight schools buses rolled into McCook one after the other with items donated for Nebraska flood and blizzard relief.

"This is a huge blessing," Casha O'Byrne of Culbertson said, as she coordinated the unloading of relief supplies from the first bus, from Hitchcock County Schools, onto a semi-truck bound for Columbus.

Casha said she had been home, "sick as a dog" and watching news and social media posts of horrific flooding and blizzards that started March 13 throughout northeast Nebraska and the Sandhills and Panhandle. "I knew there was a need for assistance. What could I do to help?" she asked herself.

Hitchcock County Schools' bus was the first of eight school buses unloaded this morning in a "Stuff the Bus" flood and blizzard relief effort coordinated by Casha O'Byrne, marketing manager for Wagner Ford and Wagner Chevrolet in McCook. Students helping included, from left, Darian Hutto, Remington Hodges, Dionte Perkins (in the bus), Kass Kisker and Dylan Collmorgan.
Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette

Then she saw a "Stuff the Bus" effort in Lincoln in which residents were asked to drop their donations off in a bus parked in a SuperSaver parking lot.

Thinking even bigger, Casha knew she could count on help from her employer, Chris Wagner, of Wagner Chevrolet-Buick and Wagner Ford-Mercury-Toyota in McCook, and suggested that area schools "stuff their own buses" and bring them to a central location at Wagner's in McCook.

Casha started with offers of buses from five schools, and that grew to eight. Each one unloaded today at Wagner Chevrolet.

Mead Lumber provided the skid loader and operator, Tom Anderson, to load pallets of bottled water onto a truck headed to Columbus.
Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Gazette

"Chris offered to donated $200 for each bus-load of donated items, and then Jim Allen of Quality Urgent Care said he would match that amount," Casha said this morning, standing in the Wagner parking lot surrounded by the Hitchcock County students who would help unload each bus. These kids are members of the school's "PBIS Team" (Positive Behavior in School Team).

Wagner's and QUC's donations — along with wads of cash and gift cards that people have handed to Casha for the effort — will be sent to Nebraska Cattlemen's disaster relief fund. Casha selected Nebraska Cattlemen, she said, because the culture and society of Southwest Nebraska is built upon agriculture and livestock production. The Cattlemen's relief fund is targeting farmers and ranchers affected by the unprecedented blizzard and flooding.

Federal government officials are estimating $1.4 billion in damages and destruction; this figure most likely will grow as more is learned of families and businesses displaced and livestock injured and killed. At least four people have lost their lives in the flooding.

Casha said the semi loaded today at Wagner's is headed to Columbus, which is acting as a hub for area communities needing relief supplies.

Casha was overwhelmed by the response to her "Stuff the Bus" effort — by the number of buses and by the show of generosity to fellow Nebraskans suffering through the state's worst-ever flooding and blizzards.

"I want these kids to know that these awful things are happening in Nebraska, not in some far-away country," Casha said. "These kids know they are reaching out to their neighbors, and being good neighbors.”

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