Relief group based in Venice offers hot meals, hurricane damage repairs and spiritual outreach

Earle Kimel, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
·4 min read
Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief is now in Venice, FL, for a month-long relief effort in South Sarasota County.
Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief is now in Venice, FL, for a month-long relief effort in South Sarasota County.

VENICE – Mike Hibbard was vacationing with family in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, when he got the call to respond to Hurricane Ian as part of Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief.

Hibbard, a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Fulton, Missouri, had to rush to Jefferson City, Missouri, for deployment, while an extended family member gathered Hibbard’s disaster response gear from his home in Auxvasse, Missouri and brought it to Jefferson City.

Earlier: Hurricane Ian: Venice moves toward cleanup

From there Hibbard – the white hat incident commander and his team of volunteers – went to a staging area in Birmingham, Alabama, to wait out Hurricane Ian and then report to Venice.

Mike Hibbard, is the white hat incident commander with large team of volunteers. The Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief is now in Venice, FL, for a month-long relief effort in South Sarasota County.
Mike Hibbard, is the white hat incident commander with large team of volunteers. The Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief is now in Venice, FL, for a month-long relief effort in South Sarasota County.

The team – initially about a dozen volunteers – arrived in Venice on Saturday and started its month-long outreach mission Monday, at First Baptist Church of Venice, 312 W. Miami Ave.

Monday night, the volunteer took 200 hot meals to residents of Country Club Estates – a manufactured home community located along the Intracoastal Waterway on the island of Venice.

“When we took the meals out there last night there were people who gave us a standing ovation,” Hibbard said in a Tuesday afternoon interview. “There were hugs, tears – a couple people told us ‘We haven’t had anything to eat for three days,’ and another said, ‘I’m so tired of eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches'.”

Volunteers from the Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief are now in Venice, FL, gather for dinner Tuesday evening at the First Baptist Church of Venice.
Volunteers from the Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief are now in Venice, FL, gather for dinner Tuesday evening at the First Baptist Church of Venice.

The relief group, which is currently made up primarily of volunteers from Missouri and Illinois – the Illinois contingent arrived with a refrigerated semi truck load of food – was assigned to Sarasota County from Albee and Edmundson roads south to Englewood by Sarasota County’s emergency operations center.

Those in need can call 941-473-6397 to reach the disaster response command center and start the process of receiving aid.

Those who arrive in person can pick up food, water and ice at the church. Volunteer outreach teams can respond to clear debris at a home and put a blue tarp on a roof if warranted.

This kitchen on wheels, is a large semi trailer, can produce up to 900 meals a day, here as volunteer Ron Turner, of Augusta, Kansas, prepares for the next day's meal. The Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief is now in Venice, FL, for a month-long relief effort.
This kitchen on wheels, is a large semi trailer, can produce up to 900 meals a day, here as volunteer Ron Turner, of Augusta, Kansas, prepares for the next day's meal. The Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief is now in Venice, FL, for a month-long relief effort.

Bob Knight, church administrator for First Baptist Church said that since disaster relief set up shop, “we’ve had a steady flow.”

Hot showers are available from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the church. A hot dinner is served at the church at 6 p.m. – though on Tuesday night that was pushed back to 7 p.m., so volunteers could return from their own meal deliveries in south Sarasota County.

Hibbard said crews have responded to help secure homes in Venice – primarily at the manufactured home communities of Country Club Estates and Bay Indies – as well as in Englewood and North Port.

Some of the volunteers in the kitchen, Susan Blessing, of Nokomis, Sue and Ron Turner, of Augusta, Kansas, and Dennis Brown of Cole Camp, Missouri. Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief is now in Venice, FL, for a month-long relief effort in South Sarasota County.
Some of the volunteers in the kitchen, Susan Blessing, of Nokomis, Sue and Ron Turner, of Augusta, Kansas, and Dennis Brown of Cole Camp, Missouri. Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief is now in Venice, FL, for a month-long relief effort in South Sarasota County.

Church staff and volunteers from First Baptist are helping the disaster volunteer start the assessment process. Age and health of the people seeking aid are factored in with property damage, as part of a triage and ranking process.

Once a request is received, an assessment team and a chaplain responds to the call.

The chaplain can meet spiritual needs and pray with the people and our assessor can assess the damage and we can rank it in priority, in terms of how important it is,” Hibbard said.

Teams with different specialties respond, pending on the condition at the residence.

One team can handle clearing debris or removing a tree blocking access to the house, while another would respond if the job requires people to climb trees and big saws.

Those volunteer crews – made up of retirees or people using vacation time – perform the work free.

To streamline deployment, the Missouri Baptist response team has divided south county into six areas.

More volunteers are arriving daily – a saw team from Arkansas was scheduled to arrive Wednesday – and the contingent of volunteers could top out at between 80 and 90 people, though many volunteers will rotate home, too.

The Venice center is one of nine Southern Baptist Disaster Relief centers established to respond to Hurricane Ian and provide hot meals, cleanup and recovery assistance.

Other centers, which are staffed by other state disaster relief groups are at: McGregor Baptist Church, 3750 Colonial Blvd., Fort Myers; New Hope Baptist Church, 431 Nicholas Pkwy. E, Cape Coral; Riverside Baptist Church, 8660 Daniels Pkwy., Fort Myers; Crossroads Baptist Church, 10721 Palm Beach Blvd., Fort Myers; Murdock Baptist Church, 18375 Cochran Blvd., Port Charlotte; First Baptist Church, 1570 W Main St., Wauchula, First Baptist Church, 3000 Orange Blossom Drive, Naples; and Calvary Baptist Church, 48 N Fifteenth Ave., Arcadia.

Earle Kimel primarily covers south Sarasota County for the Herald-Tribune and can be reached at earle.kimel@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription to the Herald-Tribune.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Venice-based Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief helps repair homes