The weather has been a little difficult this year for sure. Just a couple of weeks ago our overnight lows were still below freezing, and we even had snow within the last month. Now daytime highs are north of eighty degrees. Before you start complaining about the heat, give a thought to the people of Moore, Oklahoma, where the weather of late has been far more than an inconvenience.
As you have certainly heard by now a massive tornado blew through the small town of Moore, Oklahoma yesterday. Windspeeds of 200 miles per hour cut a mile-wide swath of destruction about twenty two miles long through the heart of this suburb of Oklahoma City, an area home to over 40,000 people, many of whom find themselves suddenly homeless.
What do you do, when ‘home’ is a pile of broken drywall, shingles, and lumber. Your clothes, your keepsakes and valuables, even your car and your toothbrush are gone. Where do you go and what do you do? Ultimately, it is often when we are at our most vulnerable we see the warmth of humanity.
Even though most of us consider our lives too busy to volunteer, to squeeze in anymore things in a given day, how fortunate one must feel when all appears lost, that someone is there to say, ‘I am here to help you.’
Most of us will not be able to help with the cleanup, or to aid the wounded, or to help rebuild those buildings not completely demolished. Most of us will not remove twisted cars, or the twisted bodies of those who did not survive. While there is little most of us can do in a practical physical sense, more often than not the best help we can give is a little cash donation to the people and organizations who are there, every time.
The Red Cross is virtually always there when disaster hits. They are the person standing there offering food, shelter, a shoulder to lean on or an ear to cry to. While it seems disasters these days are often breeding grounds for fake charities, the Red Cross has long been the benchmark for emergency disaster relief here and around the world. According to their website, the Red Cross spends $.91 of every dollar donated directly helping people.
Not to make a strong pitch, follow your own heart and your own conscience, but if you feel compelled to help these poor people, but still have to show up at work tomorrow, maybe $10 or $20 or more if you are so blessed, could help make someone who just lost everything feel like all is not lost.

Northern Concrete Construction, Inc. was a finalist in the medium sized business category of the 2013 Wisconsin Family Business Awards held in Madison on Thursday. The nomination process included an extensive history of the company, including a number of mulit-generational businesses dating back to the early 1900′s.
While we didn’t come away with the trophies, I think we came away with a little inspiration. Hearing the stories of perseverance, the challenges of mixing business and family, and some of the hurdles and hiccups of ‘keeping it in the family’ for decades, we realized that many of the challenges we face in our day to day are not exactly uncharted waters.
Surviving into posterity requires patience, dedication, and planning, all mixed with a little luck, but mostly it takes the efforts of the people who show up every day to help make it happen.
In the end, just about every business is made up of people, and the people are what make these organizations so special.
We were honored to be a finalist for these awards, and look forward to many more years, and maybe even generations, of serving the good people of Wisconsin.