No, these weren't brown bags filled with our lunch.  They were white bags filled with sand.

As with many of the states in the Midwest dealing with the severe storms and floods, we here in Iowa are also beginning to see results of the heavy rains that we've been getting.  Northern and central Iowa have been hit the hardest, but the high rivers are now making their way down to our city, which lies along the river.

And, as a result, we got a lesson in community service. 

This morning, I read on our local paper’s website that volunteers were needed to fill sandbags.  I thought, Why not?  After getting an affirmative answer from our boys, we headed over to the water plant by the river to help.  This was a new experience for all of us, but we picked up on what to do right away.

For the most part, I tied the bags that someone else had already filled.  But, during the 5 hours that we were there, the boys did everything from scooping the sand to tying the bags.

At lunchtime, they served us free sandwiches, chips, drinks and other goodies.  Yum! 

As I mentioned already, it was a community service.  We worked alongside the Amish men and boys, Mexicans (who couldn’t speak English), old people, young people, men and women.  The boys even picked up on the camaraderie of the occasion.  Although the reason for the occasion was not a good one (the oncoming flood that is being predicted), this ended up being a very good learning experience for our boys.

~Connie~