'The Right Thing to Do:' Plainfield Native Helps Oklahoma Tornado Victims

Nick Streicher isn't old enough to remember the tornado that swept through Plainfield nearly 23 years ago. But when the 20-year-old Plainfield resident saw news coverage of the killer storm that devastated Moore, Oklahoma, last month, he felt compelled to do something.

Read: 22 Years Later: Looking Back on the Plainfield Tornado

"I talked to my roommate ... and I said, 'What do you think about going to Oklahoma?,'" said Streicher, a horticulture major at Illinois State University. "We always talked about going on road trips, so it seemed like the right time to do it and the right thing to do."

On Wednesday, two days after the tornado, Streicher and roommate Calvin Lynch took to social media, asking Facebook friends to help with donations. They also reached out to their employer, Solid Ground Gardening in Bloomington Normal.

Their friends, family and coworkers came through big time. By Friday, they'd filled a borrowed pickup truck and 18-foot trailer with donated items, from food and bottled water to diapers, sanitary products, flashlights, batteries and more.

"We had almost $5,000 in donations to take," Streicher said. "It kind of blew up. You name it, it was in the trailer."

The roommates set out on Friday, driving through the night to get to Oklahoma City by early Saturday morning. After dropping the donations off at a temporary Salvation Army collection center, Streicher and Lynch wanted to do more to help.

They made their way to nearby Moore, Oklahoma, setting up a campsite to get a couple hours' rest before touring the hardest hit areas Saturday afternoon.

"We did that for the better part of the night, just kind of looking around in awe," said Streicher. "I don't know if there's any words to describe it. It was really surreal."

Streicher and Lynch met up with veterans disaster response group Team Rubicon, helping them board up tornado-damaged homes made unsafe by the storm.

"We went to the hardest-hit area and just started asking people if there was anything we could do," Streicher said. "We ended up cleaning debris and helping people for the rest of the day."

Just days after a storm that claimed 24 lives and leveled much of the town, Streicher said he was struck by the calmness.

"It was really calm; the sun was out," he said. Streicher said he got a sense of calm from the people, too, who seemed focus on rebuilding and picking up the pieces of their lives.

"People were also extremely appreciative," Streicher said, adding residents of Moore expressed gratitude at the overwhelming outpouring of support from volunteers.

Streicher and Lynch helped one family that was hit particularly hard by the tragedy. Their 9-year-old son was a student at Plaza Towers Elementary School, where seven children were killed by the tornado. The little boy's best friend died in the disaster, Streicher said.

"That was pretty intense," he said. "That was actually one of the last few yards where we were helping out. We looked at each other and said, 'This is why we came out here.'"

While Streicher and Lynch intended to camp out for the duration of their stay, a fellow volunteer took it upon herself to pay for a hotel room for the ISU students.

"We were asking where we could take a shower, and she said they had showers set up in the parking lot at Walmart," Streicher said. The gift of a hotel room — not to mention a bed and running water — came as a surprise to the roommates.

The duo returned to ISU on Memorial Day. Their trip was featured in Illinois State magazine, which quoted Lynch as saying they felt guilty returning to an apartment with electricity and running water.

“Not going wasn’t even an option,” Lynch told the magazine. “It’s just the way both of us were raised.”