GAIL WHITE Effects of Valley flooding to reach kids in Russia, S. Dakota

Like thousands of people across the Valley, Diana Rickard of Salem has suffered from flooding this summer. Water, a foot and a half deep, gushed into her basement the end of July.
"I know I didn't have it as bad as some," Diana acknowledged.
But the effect of this particular flooded basement will be felt from South Dakota to Belarus, Russia.
For the past eight years, Diana, an English teacher at United Local Schools, has spearheaded Friends from Afar, along with the collection of toys, clothes and toiletries for orphan children in Belarus. Many of these children were orphaned by the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
Every year, Diana and her pupils at United have collected items to send to the children. They have had school drives, urging and challenging pupils to donate Matchbox cars and Barbie dolls. The pupils have gotten their church youth groups involved as well.
Some of the items are new, others gently used. Pupils have gathered together at the end of the school year to glue missing parts and touch-up paint on cars with nail polish.
For eight years, Diana has stored the donations in her basement. Each year, Diana sends the donations with groups traveling to Belarus to ensure that the gifts are delivered to the orphans personally.
Smiles delivered
Always the visiting missionaries return with pictures of the children's precious smiles holding their first real toy; a Barbie doll, a Beanie Baby or a car. Diana shares the pictures with her pupils. Some have had the pleasure of seeing a child in a photo wearing a clothing item they had donated.
Two years ago, the pupils at United added a second group to their goodwill mission.
"Right after 9/11, people weren't traveling to Belarus," Diana explained. "I heard about the Sioux Indians in South Dakota."
She approached her pupils with the needs of the Indians on the reservation and the pupils accepted the challenge. For the past two years, pupils and organizations have gathered school supplies for the Sioux children. Pencils, notebook paper, rulers and books were collected. Just as she did last year, the items were to be sent out in late August to the reservation.
What happened
Diana's basement was full of all these donated items for children in South Dakota and Belarus when the rainwater rushed in mid-July. In one evening, a year's worth of her pupils' efforts was washed away with the rain.
"Garbage bags aren't waterproof," Diana sadly shared. Dozens of bags filled with stuffed animals, Beanie Babies and clothing items were destroyed.
"The health department came out," she said, explaining her efforts to salvage as much as she could. "They told me anything cloth or paper had to be thrown away. They harbor bacteria."
With the children of Belarus already suffering with low immune systems from the radiation poisoning, Diana needs to be very careful not to send bacteria-infested items.
"I can take the Barbie dolls out of their boxes and bleach them," Diana said. "I will do the same with the Matchbox cars."
All the soap, toothbrushes and personal items her pupils gathered for the Belarus children has to be thrown away.
Complete loss
The donations for the Sioux children are a complete loss.
"Even where the paper wasn't under water, it absorbed moisture," Diana said. "I was going to save the pencils. Then I thought about how children chew on erasers and threw them all away."
"Only four or five of my students know what happened," she said, choking back tears. She will share the news with the rest of the pupils when school resumes.
In the meantime, hoping to recoup some of the loss, Diana contacted FEMA. The representative who visited her home determined she had "insufficient damage" to received any funds.
Apparently, wet garbage bags aren't very impressive.
To the Sioux schoolchildren in South Dakota and the radiation-infested children of Belarus, those garbage bags were gold.
gwhite@vindy.com
XDonations for Friends from Afar can be made by calling (330) 332-8482.