BEDFORD – Lawrence County had a valuable resource in emergencies or disasters with the Tabernacle Of Praise Emergency Services (T.O.P.E.S.)
T.O.P.E.S responded to incidents in Lawrence County and provided this service to other counties for more than 15 years, but now that service is no longer available.
Jack Voightschild and the Salvation Army started a canteen in the late 1980s. Jack started working out of his personal vehicle, bringing refreshments and food to emergency responders.
The service evolved and began to also provide chaplain services to families of accident victims as well as serving death notifications. Due to health reasons, Jack needed to step away and allow someone else to take over the service.
Tabernacle of Praise Church and minister Ray “Boomer” Christy decided to take over this valuable service. Previously, it was free and provided by volunteer labor. But now, that service has been stopped when no volunteers could be found to take over Christy’s dedication.
The unit provided drinks, such as Gatorade and water, and usually works with local restaurants to bring food to incident scenes. In the wintertime, hot water was provided to make coffee, hot chocolate, or cappuccino.
Emergency Management Director Valerie Luchauer is asking the public to help.
“Now that we don’t have these services, we are asking the public to help by donating water and Gatorade to their local volunteer fire departments,” added Luchauer. “With this intense heat, it only takes minutes for our firefighters and first responders to become ill. This weekend, we had an incident at White River where a man lost his life. DNR officers and other first responders were on the scene for hours without food or water. Thankfully, two local establishments, Dominos and Servpro, stepped up and provided what was needed.”
Luchauer would like to gather information from local establishments that are willing to donate items like water or food when first responders are at incident scenes for extended periods.
“It would be on a rotating basis,” she added. “Any establishment or individual who would like to donate food or snacks, we would be grateful.”
If you would like to donate to your local volunteer fire department, please call to arrange to drop off the donations. You can also drop off your donated items at Marion, Mitchell, Shawswick, or Oolitic VFDs, which are manned daily. Please do not leave donated items outside of a closed department.
You can also contact Luchauer at 812-277-9680 or email lcema@lawrencecounty.in.gov.
