Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers and leaders, along with North American Mission Board’s mobile Featherlite command center, were recently dispatched to central Colorado in the wake of the devastating wildfires affecting this area.
The mobile command center travels to disaster areas throughout the country and was most recently in Moore, Okla., following May’s tornadoes. First Baptist Church in Black Forest, Colo., will serve as the command center’s home.
The Featherlite trailer has a self-contained generator for power and a satellite system for communication needs. It includes a private meeting area as well as a larger coordination/meeting room.
Volunteers and leaders help with various tasks depending on the disaster. Work includes clean-up, debris removal, meal preparation and ministry calls. They also help to rebuild months after disasters have occurred. Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) has over 82,000 trained volunteers that are sent to various disasters each year and is one of the three largest mobilizers of trained disaster relief volunteers in the United States, along with the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army.
“As disheartened as we are about the Colorado and Oklahoma disasters, we are encouraged by the great work being done by SBDR and NAMB and that Featherlite has helped support their efforts,” Dave Brenno, Featherlite Specialty Sales Manager, said. “We worked with them to design and build their command center from the ground up. I believe that this high level of customization and customer coordination led to a trailer that greatly enhanced the organizations’ capability to respond to these horrific disasters.”
North American Mission Board (NAMB) coordinates and manages Southern Baptist responses to major disasters through partnerships with 42 state Baptist conventions, most of which have their own state disaster relief programs. SBDR and NAMB are both national members of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD).
Featherlite is a leading manufacturer of custom trailers for mobile display, museum, training, recruiting, medical, emergency response, education, business, sport, vending and recreational purposes. For more information, call 800-800-1230 or go to the Featherlite website at www.featherlitespecialty.com.
