Great Stories
Montana Campus Corps:
College Students Meeting Critical Community Needs
Browning Wildfires by Raina Witherite

My name is Raina Witherite, my service site is the red cross of montana. I am a disaster action team member and that means that I can be called to action when there is a natural disaster like the two huge wildfires that surrounded Browning last week.There were two experiences during my time in Browning that really affected me, the first is when we were first called out. So, it was abour 8 o'clock on a wednesday night and I was on call for the red cross. I didn't know that in about an hour I would be heading to Browning in an overloaded mini van. I met with the other red cross volunteers and we assessed the current situation and decided that I should go to browning with the DAT chair Kevin so we could assess the situation there and get a better understanding of what was going on and what was needed. We filled the van with 30 cots as many blankets as I could stuff in every available space and my pillow pet eli the elephant. Once we got to choteau we could see an oarange glow in the sky and then 30 miles away from browning we could see the flames, I had no idea how the firefighters would put it out. We set up a shelter at the Old Eagle Shield in Browning and the second experience that changed me happened there and at the fire cache. There were so many people who came to Browning to help those people and everyone was so grateful and happy just to have us there. That sense of community and just knowing that so many people are willing to help others showed me that there is a lot of good in the world. Overall I had a great experience helping those people and I met alot of really wonderful people as well. Thankyou campus corps for giving me the oppurtunity to help others, and please excuse my bad spelling.

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