by Sr. Regina Siegfried, ASC
NOTE: This article was originally published in our internal newsletter at the beginning of June 2025.
During the late afternoon of Friday, May 16, an EF3 tornado cut a mile-wide swath through parts of St. Louis county and north city, destroying many of our stately old trees and littering the ground with our iconic red bricks. By Thursday, May 22, the Urban League had issued a call for a day-long donation event for volunteers and for supplies to help people, many of whom had lost everything. Sister Elaine Freund and I pooled some of our community funds and I bought items from a nearby Ruler (Kroger) store to contribute to the drive and drove to the collection site in North City.
The last words of a statement familiar to all of us— “wherever need touches our hearts”—came alive for me on that Thursday in an entirely new way. The sides of streets were piled with whole trees and branches; piles of bricks and homes without roofs hunkered beyond the sidewalks. I joined the car caravan to the drop-off area and was touched by the number of volunteers of all ages and races, the evident organization behind the collection day, and the good cheer amid the disaster area.
One of the volunteers who helped direct us through the line told me that her home was damaged but she wanted to give back to the community. I was thanked more times than I remember while I was the one feeling grateful to be a very small part of overwhelming generosity.
It will take the city years to rebuild; some areas, like parts of post-Katrina New Orleans, may not come back. Our history of racism and discrimination, now largely ignored in the face of disaster, will once again rear its ugly head as the city struggles to renew itself on many levels.
Like slow and difficult conversion and redemption, recovery from a natural disaster will take time, patience, and mutual support. I hope that brick by brick and block by block we rebuild and will be there for one another “wherever need touches our hearts.”