I've Been Thinking
Have you ever heard of the Orphan Grain Train? Do you get it confused with the Orphan Train? Do you know that the Grant Thrift Shop in the Senior Center in Grant has a part in this venture?
The Orphan Train was a program operated from 1854 to 1929 relocating 250,000 children from Eastern cities to rural areas in the Midwest. This was to provide homes for homeless, abandoned or orphaned children. These children particularly came from New York. These children were then adopted by families in the middle states, some ended up in happy homes, some were adopted only as farm labor.
The Orphan Grain Train is a 501c3 Non-profit Christian Volunteer network that shares personal and material resources with needy people in America and around the world. All monetary donations are used 98% for relief and only 2% is used for administration. It costs eleven dollars to sponsor the shipment of one box. The semi loads can hold many, many boxes. These are directly shipped to areas in the U.S. and then shipped to ports around the world.
Yes, OGT does have something to do with orphans but not in the way it was in the early years. And it is not a train but it is trucks. I will explain in a bit.
In 1991 Rev. Dr. Wallace Schulz, former associate speak of the Lutheran Hour radio broadcast was sent to Riga, Latvia, to start broadcasting The Lutheran Hour program. While there he observed many, many orphans and people in that area in great need—need of food, clothing, medical supplies, etc. and especially in need of HOPE!
Rev. Schulz contacted Rev. Ray S. Wilke, pastor of the Grace Lutheran Church in Norfolk, Nebraska. Wilke envisioned a train, that would travel through America’s Midwest, picking up cars of donated grain along the way, until it reached a port from which the grain would be shipped to feed starving orphans in Eastern Europe. He contacted Clayton Andrews, president of Andrews Van Lines, a worldwide transportation company and told his story. Together they founded the Orphan Grain Train.
He knew they needed help and he envisioned a train carrying needed supplies to reach all of these destitute people. So, instead of a train, trucks are now used to carry precious needed cargo to where needed.
As it turned out, railroad operating protocol made the original grain train concept impractical so now trucks are used by the Andrews Trucking Company. The truck loads are taken to the Norfolk Warehouse in Norfolk, Nebr.
More that 5,066 semi-trailer truckloads of food, clothing, medical supplies and religious materials have been sent to 73 countries and several disaster areas in the U. S. A. since 1992. All of this is done by volunteers and individual contributions.
Many areas have benefited from this service such as Pilger, Nebraska after the tornado there, disaster relief for those in California after the fires, North Carolina flooding and Texas flooding. Drought in South Dakota and Texas with loads of hay and Earthquake areas such as one that was in the Philippines recently. Mercy Meals are packed by volunteers, sometimes schools will have students do this for a service project. Members of the National Honor Society from the Perkins County Schools have helped in the past. They packed meals in Wauneta. The meals consist of Soy, chicken flavoring, dried veggies and rice are packaged, weighed and sealed and boxed to be shipped around the world. Mercy Meals packages serve up to 6 children and each meal costs approximately 12 cents. $44.00 will feed a child for a year.
Volunteers put together school kits, hygiene kits, Mercy Meals. Hygiene kits consist of a towel, wash cloth, comb, toothbrush and past, shampoo, sanitary napkins, a bar of soap etc. these kits are much needed for domestic and international shipments.
Twice a year the Grant Senior Center Thrift Shop helps out with the needs for OGT. In September all of the spring and summer clothes are pulled and sent with Marvin Swan and group of volunteers to take to Julesburg, Colorado to be sorted and put in boxes according the men’s, women’s or children’s clothing etc. If the clothes need mended or washed that is done there also. Then again in March the fall and winter clothes are pulled and sent to Julesburg. Each of these transfers of seasonal clothes takes about five days, the Senior Center closes and it takes 20 to 25 volunteers to complete this task. This service has been going on since before 2015. Clothes, shoes and stuffed animals are sent. At times during the year if there is an abundance of items or items they can’t use at the Thrift Shop these are sent. Marvin Swan and volunteers from the Zion Lutheran Church and other community members take a trip once a month and go to sort and box things in Julesburg. There often times several boxes or bags of clothing left at Zion which they load up and take with them.
The Tribune newspaper had a story a few weeks ago that featured a group of men who came and picked up medical supplies and equipment from Perkins County Health Services such as over-bed tables, a whirlpool bathtub, I.V. stands and 33 hospital beds and mattresses. Orphan Grain Train is always in need of wheel chairs, walkers etc.
After all the boxes are loaded they are taken to a warehouse in Norfolk, Nebraska and then distributed from there.
The Mission for OGT is sharing resources and bringing Christ’s name and character to needy people both far and near.