Over $15,000 to be distributed from Howe Tornado Relief Fund

The tornado that ripped through Howe late on April 26 made quite the impact on this town The devastating twister ripped through the northern part of the city, but that wasn't the story Community members came out in droves to help the victims both with money and sweat

A young Howe man named Colby Ake started a relief fund through the sales of Howe t-shirts provided by Mac's T-Shirts and More His efforts, along with his family members, raised a large sum of money that made up over half of the total amount raised, which turned out to be $15,400. A Howe Tornado Relief Fund account was set up at Independent Bank and four local community leaders, led by Clyde Hepner, recently reviewed applications for distribution of funds

Nine families returned applications for relief assistance Six of the nine were residents of Stark Lane, one family on Ponderosa Road, one family on Tobin Street and one family on Smith Road will receive proportioned amounts of the $15,400 The monies were divided based on the amount of financial stress the family accrued and a cap was placed on any amount above $2,000 Every last penny that was raised will be given to the tornado victims that submitted their applications

In addition to the t-shirt relief efforts, a community picnic was help in which Walmart donated mass quantities of hamburgers and fixings

The four member committee formulated an application process and left those applications at each home of the tornado victims They also shared information in the Howe Enterprise about the process so that all victims had a chance to fill out the application In some cases, phone calls were even made to those that were known

The committee would like to thank the community of Howe for their support in coming to the aid of those that had losses due to this natural disaster A big thank you also goes to Grayson County Commissioner Jeff Whitmire for the immediate action taken to properly handle the situation

This situation started out very badly, but with the cooperation of the Howe Church of Christ, King's Trail Cowboy Church, Howe First United Methodist Church, New Beginning Fellowship, FBC Howe, Community Bible Fellowship all working together, the bad situation turned into a positive one.