As managing editor of After a hurricane or tornado, it's typical to see an urgent need for some plastic products -- sheeting and tarps to cover roofs, for example, or water bottles. The Lawrence, Kan., Journal-World & News has a story today about how Greensburg, Kan., desperately needed plastic storage tubs and lids after a tornado flattened the town, and how residents of nearby Lawrence helped meet that need.
To the residents of Greensburg, Lawrence may forever be known as the plastic tub town.Former Lawrence Mayor Marty Kennedy and his wife, Patty, this weekend delivered 500 waterproof plastic storage tubs and lids that community members donated after the Kennedys put out the call for contributions last week.
“We had so many people say that they couldn’t believe that people from so far away care so much,” Patty Kennedy said.
The couple distributed the 500 tubs in less than three hours. A sister-in-law who lives in rural Greensburg had told them the tubs were needed because people lacked a weatherproof place to store small items they recovered from the debris.
“We just proceeded up and down the blocks, and when we saw people digging through their rubble — and trust me, that’s all that’s left out there — we would ask them if they needed plastic tubs,” Marty Kennedy said.
The Berry Plastics Corp. plant in Lawrence donated 100 of the plastic containers and lids, according to the story. It's nice to see a plastics company involved in an effort like this. It's further proof that there are a lot of nice people who own, manage and work at plastics processors and their suppliers.