Fueling Disaster Response with Kentucky Homeland Heroes
Donation protected
When disasters strike, there are a select few who feel the duty to respond, to help and bring hope. We are veterans and first responders. We live a life of service. We Serve Those Who Protect, so that they can serve their communities during disasters. We are Kentucky Homeland Heroes (K-H2), a new 501(c)3 non-profit focusing on disaster response.
I'm John, a volunteer with Kentucky Homeland Heroes (living in Pennsylvania currently). When our successful and decorated Greater Cincinnati Chapter of Sheep Dog Impact Assistance was disbanded along with all the other teams and chapters of this national organization, and disaster operations ceased, we started our own non-profit to continue serving others. We are a force multiplier, able to perform a wide range of tasks, from search and rescue to emergent medical response to welfare checks to route clearing, debris removal and muck out.
As Sheep Dog volunteers, we served in flood responses in Eastern Kentucky, tornados in Central Kentucky, and we were active with food and mask distribution during COVID, making sure people who couldn't get out could still get food and supplies.
While not everyone is able to join us in the field, you can still support what we do. Everything we do is volunteer-based, so everything we do is possible thanks to the generosity of businesses and individuals.
Our most recent deployment (as Kentucky Homeland Heroes) to Muhlenberg County, KY (2024)
My dream is to be able to arrive at a disaster site with a flat-bed semi carrying heavy equipment (skid steer, excavator) and rescue apparatus (small boat, ATV or UTV), allowing us to rebuild roads, clear downed trees and debris, and access people in places inaccessible by normal vehicles. Even without these things, we will still hike miles up a mountain to deliver food and supplies to a family cut off from road access due to torrential rains. That dream is a ways off, but for right now, I want to equip our team with the tools we need to be able to effectively respond to people whose lives have been destroyed by nature.
Tree removal/route clearing on our Muhlenberg County, KY deployment (K-H2).
While some on our team have spent a good deal of our own money on equipment such as helmets, tools and rescue supplies, others on our team don't have the money to do so. Donations will be used to fund the following:
- Appropriate helmets (beneficial in route clearing, tree removal, search and rescue)
- Waders (to keep us safe from flood waters)
- Chain saw PPE (gloves and chaps)
- Branding (you won't soon forget us when we come to town, but we're a new organization and need shirts and other methods of identification)
- Medical supplies (an AED- we're out in austere environments where hospitals and EMS are often overwhelmed. We need to be able to care for our own and others. We also need other medical supplies to clean wounds, stop bleeds, clear objects out of eyes...)
- Rescue/Recovery equipment (a winch for each truck to allow for self-extrication if we get stuck where there is no help, also to remove objects and trees from roadways to allow
emergency responders access)
- Fuel and other consumables (for equipment while onsite)
- Tool and trailer maintenance
- Programs like our annual fishing tournament to help other veterans and first responders in the community connect.
- Each year we seek out a veteran or first responder family who has suffered some tragedy or difficulty that year (house fire, et cetera) and take care of Christmas shopping so they can have gifts under their tree.
FYI, What our money does NOT go to:
- Lining our pockets. (All donations go to actively supporting what we do, so we can better serve others.)
Disaster operations are expensive, and we don't have federal, state or local funding. Please consider helping us serve others!
Some of our members (as SheepDog) mucking out a makeshift town hall after flooding in Fleming-Neon, Kentucky.
Thank you for your consideration and support of our mission to serve others!
Organizer
John Morris
Organizer
Johnstown, PA