VOLUNTEER LEADERS: Mara and Reese Harrison
BY VAL SCHOGER PHOTOS BY ALEIGHSA WRIGHT & HOPEPANHANDLE.ORG
As Northwest Florida grapples with the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, the number of volunteers and the amount of accomplished work will probably remain unmeasured. Many have stepped up during the worst days after the storm, simply doing what was needed, helping their neighbors and supporting their community. Rarely do we hear their names but, even if we do not know who they are, those who have experienced their kindness will remember them as everyday heroes.
The first day after Hurricane Michael’s landfall, Mara and Reese Harrison mobilized everyone they knew to help with the recovery efforts, leading hundreds of volunteers in Lynn Haven, a municipality with 20,000 residents, and simply acting with confidence and according to their beliefs after seeing the extent of devastation.
Eight days after hurricane impact, hot summer air and the smell of burgers on a grill wafts across the parking lot close to the Lynn Haven sheriff’s office. Pop music plays from an enclosed trailer. Dozens of volunteers are standing under tents, ladling food onto plates. People stand in line with stern faces, patiently waiting their turn for food and supplies. Some people rummage through boxes of clothing that are stacked next to a wall of water bottles. The landscape is drastically changed–only tree stumps remain in place of tall pines and oaks. The once picturesque town center looks bare and desolate. Fallen trees and limbs line the roadways in the nearby neighborhoods. Thousands of houses and cars are destroyed. An uncounted number of residents have lost everything they owned. The aftershock has set in for many and fear sits in their bones. There is no electricity yet and cell phone service is still spotty. The sun has been relentless since the storm.
What once was the center of town has transformed into a hub for supplies and food. It looks much like a refugee camp. A large temporary banner reads “HopePanhandle.org.”
Sunburned, sweaty, and resolute, Reese Harrison helps unload supplies with a group of people. A few hundred feet away, his wife Mara answers questions, listens, points to boxes of supplies. The couple has been driving from Walton County every day to help the Lynn Haven community.
“We came on the first day after the storm to check on Reese’s dental practice.” Mara closes her eyes briefly. “That’s when we saw the devastation. When we tried to make our way to the office, we could not even get through. There were so many trees in the road. When we got there, the roof was partially gone and everything was wet inside. We tried to get in touch with the employees and everyone was accounted for except one, which worried us. Days later we found out that she was okay. The first two days, we were chainsawing people out of their houses. They were trapped. It’s so much damage.”
Working side by side, Mara and Reese have been trying to establish hope and “a small amount of normalcy” after the hurricane, they explain. The dental practice would not return to service anytime soon, and seeing the desperation of the residents, they simply went to work, reaching out to family and friends to establish a convoy of supplies and volunteers. Reese wipes the sweat from his face and neck as he looks around. “We both grew up here, close to Lynn Haven. When we came back the day that the National Guard allowed people to come in, the day after the hurricane, we wanted to check on the business. We got here that morning, saw the destruction, and went home that night and got organized. We started cooking the next day. We brought chainsaws and we started making food on a grill. We were in the parking lot of my office at first but walked down to the city and talked to City Manager Michael White. The city staff was decimated and the people that remained had so much to handle dealing with emergencies first. You couldn’t see the roads because there was so much debris.”
We want to help restore the community. We need people who are completely invested in restoration because it’s going to take a long time. – REESE HARRISON
Reese and Mara went into high gear, drumming up dozens of volunteers and setting a supply chain in motion. Their kids’ school, Ohana Institute in Rosemary Beach, provided many of the resources and supplies. Within days, equipment, food, tools, and volunteers poured in from Walton County and many other organizations around the South and the nation. Trucks started rolling in on the third day after the storm. One of Mara’s friends launched the website, HopePanhandle.org to help the determined couple as a way to organize volunteers and donations.
“We have to thank our children’s school for letting us use their kitchen.” Mara points at the volunteer workers. “A number of people work in Walton County to help us and many drive with us every day to help here in Lynn Haven. A person is set up in the school parking lot in Rosemary Beach to receive supplies and food donations. Other volunteers cook it in the school’s kitchen, like casseroles and side dishes and things like that. They also make sandwiches—probably two thousand a day. We load them up three times a day and bring them into town. But you have to wait in traffic for about two hours to get in and out—both ways.”
With houses and cars destroyed, or simply scared to leave the house because they fear looters, and with the next supermarket or restaurant a two-hour drive away, many who come to eat have no other way of getting a warm meal. “Some people are hungry all day,” Mara says. “They are scared to touch the food that has thawed in their freezers. Some people walk to us a mile and a half, sometimes two-and-a-half miles. Some ride a bike for six miles.”
FEMA workers arrived on the second day after the storm, Mara explains. “They were filling out forms for people. They helped us connect with some volunteers, bringing up our numbers from approximately 70 to 100 helpers. Many of our friends have joined us, many of the parents at our
kid’s school. We know that this could have been us. Walton County could have looked like this. So we want to help. We also have people working on the grill that lost their houses here in Lynn Haven. They’ll grill all day. It helps them get out of their house and they are very community-minded. This is like a safe haven for many.”
Mara and Reese remember the panic that set in with many of the victims the first couple of days after the storm. “Some were in complete shock, especially the older generation. We have been trying very hard to let the ones who were in really bad shape call their relatives at least. And now that cell service is partially working, it’s helping a lot. When President Trump was here a few days ago, there was a post on The White House Instagram page of him shaking hands with several people. One photo showed a woman who had been coming every day. Her sister saw that picture and it was the first time she knew that her sister was still alive.”
Hearing and witnessing so many personal tragedies in the last few days made Mara and Reese more determined. They received a lot of help, they say, but the need is still larger than the supply at times. “Everyone wanted things and we tried our best to help everyone. There are not enough tarps at hand yet and people are frightened. They all want tarps and roofing nails. Somebody told us that the Army Corps of Engineers is starting to help people. We can do the sustaining until that kind of program steps in.”
At the beginning, people wanted us to listen to them and they were breaking down and they cried a lot, and we cried a lot. It was very emotional. – MARA HARRISON
The supplies are put to good use as soon as they arrive. There were several surprise suppliers and VIPs that simply showed up. “The attorney general, Pam Bondi, helped us. She came by with the Tampa Devil Rays—the baseball team. They sent six truckloads up here from Tampa,” Mara smiles. “Along with the President of the United States, it was one of the highlights that boosted the confidence.”
A church in Alabama sent 160 chainsaws. Mayor Anderson’s daughter, Hilary Frierson Keeley, organized the delivery of supplies from her community in St. Augustine and showed up with seven truckloads of supplies. The need for commodities would change every day. Often the presence and determination of the volunteers and their empathy meant so much more to many of the victims. “At the beginning, people wanted us to listen to them and they were breaking down … and they cried a lot, and we cried a lot. It was very emotional. Finding people like that in desperate situations, it’s terrible. Chainsaws were most important the first two or three days. We got probably around 250 and the City handled handing them out. With supplies and food, we served probably around 75,000 meals in the past five or six days. Right now, people are asking a lot for bleach, roofing nails, and tarps.”
Lifting the victims’ spirits became a mission of its own. “On Sunday, we played all Christian music and people were still very broken that day,” Mara says. “But now, see? It’s fine. It feels happy. They know they are neighbors. It turned into a good thing in the midst of something horrible. We are passing out gas to people who are running on generators, you know, to keep their food cold. But we have to ration it to two gallons per person. Many would like to get five gallons because then they would feel comfortable driving somewhere. But we have to ration it and nobody complains. And they always say ‘thank you.’ They are gracious. We are potentially going to have more gas to distribute today. We have realized in this thing, when you have a grassroots effort, the situation can be amended immediately and you don’t have to wait to go find the right agency to help you.”
Mara and Reese look at each other—as they are working hands-on every day, they might not even fully comprehend the extent of their accomplishment. “It’s really pretty amazing how it’s working. We are faithful people and so … we just feel like it’s being provided. In the beginning, everything was depleted. Every meal. One of the first days, we cooked hot dogs and hamburgers. I was on the grill. The other volunteers would say, ‘Alright, this is the last box of hamburger meat.’ It was in the middle of the day and we would still have to feed people dinner. And—I’m not even kidding—thirty seconds later, somebody drove up saying, ‘We have 750 hamburgers. Can you grill these?’ And we were like, ‘Yes, we can.’ It got better every day from there.”
Although just a few weeks in existence, HopePanhandle.org has monetary donations pouring in and has 501(c)(3) status. Mara and Reese realize that while the food and supplies will not be needed in a few weeks, their work will be a long-term commitment to Lynn Haven and Bay County.
“This will be a long process,” Reese nods. “We want to help restore the community. We need people who are completely invested in restoration because it’s going to take a long time. We don’t want people to leave and not come back. We want to do whatever it takes to get back to normal.”
To find out more or to donate to the cause,
visit HopePanhandle.org
