Sometimes, as they say, the stars align and everything seems to fall into place.
When the folks at the Southwire East Insulating factory in Bremen heard about the tornadoes in Kentucky, they knew they wanted to do something.
As they looked at a map of Kentucky, they saw a tiny town called “Bremen,” just about 100 miles northeast of Mayfield, the hardest hit point in Kentucky. Bremen, Kentucky fits on about 134 acres, about an hour’s drive south of Evansville. Of their population of about 365, 12 were killed by the tornado.
At that point, the Southwire employees knew their mission: They would adopt Bremen, Kentucky They would collect and deliver emergency supplies to them this weekend.
They put out a flier, requesting donations to their facility at 515 Copperfield Way. The things they are collecting include ready-to-eat food, diapers, pet food, safety equipment, cleaning supplies, work gloves and new underwear to be distributed there.
Here’s where my star became aligned with them:
A few weeks ago, my husband and I attended an auction at a department store that was closing. In the rush of bidding and all, I bought two pallets of things: About 1,000 work gloves, and another 1,000 pairs of women’s underwear in all sizes. I paid 3 cents apiece, with a hitch that I had to buy 1,000 of each — $30 for all the undies, $30 for all the gloves.The back seat of my car was completely full of underwear, and my trunk was filled with gloves.
More than a few people saw my car while I was parked for my part-time job at Bellmart, the B.P. convenience station in Bremen, Indiana. I was the target of many questions and jokes. Most people wanted to know what I was going to do with it all.
“Give them away,” I said.
I sorted all 1,000 pairs by sizes and put seven each into Zip-lock gallon-sized baggies. At Thanksgiving, I handed them out to my husband’s side of the family. This past Sunday, I shared with my siblings, their spouses and children. We shared a lot of laughs, handing out gloves and underwear to so many.
Still, my trunk was filled with the undies and gloves.
And then Southwire announced on Facebook that they were collecting underwear and gloves for the people of Bremen, Kentucky. No fewer than seven people forwarded the flier to me.
My car’s trunk is now empty and my back seat has room for passengers.
And the undies and gloves are headed to Bremen, Kentucky.