In the wake of the devastating tornado that tore through Ringle last month, the recovery effort hasn’t been defined by a single organization, but by a massive, simultaneous outpouring of community support. From local business owners to high school students, the response to the Ringle tornado has been a testament to what happens when an entire region mobilizes at once.
On Friday, April 17, more than 100 homes were damaged in the EF-3 tornado, which cut a diagonal path across Ringle, just east of Kronenwetter and Weston. The EF scale is a set of wind estimates based on damage, with an EF-3 tornado generated three-second gusts of 136-165 mph.
After the skies cleared and the damage was visible, relief efforts to support those affected by the twister were launched across Marathon County.
WIFC 95.5 broadcaster Paul Belky, who lives in Weston, remembers being in the studio when the tornado came through.
“I was watching my webcam live at home thinking ‘oh my gosh, is this gonna hit my house,’” Belky said. “I could tell that it was getting bad because I had left my kitchen windows open and then I could hear the wind, like a semi, roaring through.”
The tornado touched down about 5 miles east of Belky’s house. It was a nerve-wracking afternoon for Belky, but it was a traumatic loss of property and home for others.
“We were on the air and it was quite stressful, giving these warnings out and doing live coverage, and then learning that these people were still stuck in their home,” Belky said. “There was nothing I could do besides thinking those are my neighbors, just a couple miles east of me.”
For Belky, the reality of the situation didn’t hit home until he took a drive through Ringle to assess the damage firsthand.
“I only got about halfway through the town of Ringle and I felt suffocated. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I felt for those families instantly,” he said. “You can see photos and video, but that doesn’t really do justice for when you see what happened with your own eyes the devastation. It looks like something even worse than you see in a movie.”
One image in particular stood out to Belky.
“I’ll never forget the visual I saw of someone’s home right there next to the elementary school,” he said. “It must have been a young child’s room. I saw their dresser and their toys in their bedroom, and that was all that was left of the house – the roof was gone, the side walls were gone, the foundation looked like it was moved. But yet the bedroom was still there intact and thinking about that young child’s room and not being able to ever sleep in that room again really hit home for me.”
Belky, like many other locals, woke up Saturday morning thinking there must be something the community could do to band together and support their fellow neighbors in a moment of crisis.
“I had the idea of let’s just do a cookout. Let’s just do something quick, something fun, maybe like a tailgate grill-out where we can feed people and try to get money for the families directly,” he said.
Belky wasn’t the only one with this drive. Overnight, relief efforts were popping up to help fulfill the immediate needs of families whose lives were devastated by the storm. Belky saw that response, and decided it was best to develop an event that would help provide long-term assistance.
“A lot of those families I think had tons of donations with clothing and things they needed, but I was like, well, they need cash. They need money,” he said.
Belky came to work Monday and pitched the idea to his colleagues at Midwest Communications. They were onboard and needed a partner to make this cookout a public, splashy event that could draw attention and thus more donations. Belky previously partnered with the locally owned Ace Hardware store in Weston and knew they would be the perfect location and had a staff that was experienced in community events.
“They’re great, they do so many family-oriented fundraisers and events throughout the summer, they always have cookouts and they’re in the D.C. Everest District right there,” he said.
By Monday afternoon, organizers were reaching out to get support from other local businesses. Once word spread, they started fielding calls from businesses that wanted to donate their time, goods or services.
“Nueske’s reached out right away,” Belky said. “They donated like eight cases of brats and hot dogs. And then it just kind of stemmed from that point of all these local businesses wanting to help.”
Eventually, partners would grow to include Townline Market, Zillman’s Meat Market, Festival Foods, Pick ‘n Save and Target. Weston Kwik Trip donated 88 boxes of their signature glazer donuts. The Tower Cafe in Wausau’s downtown Dudley Tower donated eight boxes of their bagels, which are shipped overnight from a New York City bakery.
“All these local businesses teamed up and jumped on board and said ‘what can we give ya?’” Belky said.
In less that three days, local businesses banded together to put on a 12-hour fundraiser in the Ace Hardware parking lot on Thursday, April 23. They served breakfast and lunch, with massive lines forming early on.
“It was jam-packed,” said Danielle Hanson, marketing coordinator at Weston Ace Hardware. “I’ve never seen such a turnout in any of our cookouts and the line was forever long, but everybody was patient, calm and happy. It’s just neat to see the community come together and do what it takes. We actually had a customer ask if we needed help, so he came back after he delivered some food to some people and joined in and helped us out.”
The cookout was such a success that they ran out of food by early afternoon.
“Then Festival showed up and donated 400 brats, so we had another load of food there until about 4:30 p.m.,” Belky said. “I was there grilling at the end. We ran out of food and at that point it didn’t matter anymore if people were hungry or not, they didn’t care they were still donating money – it wasn’t about getting something, it was just about them showing up and showing their support.”
Belky went into the fundraiser with the hopes that they could raise $20,000 for the families. Even after running out of food, they flew past that goal and more than doubled it with a total fundraising haul of $46,000.
“It was mind-blowing but it was a blessing as well – and a true statement that we have such a strong community with family and friends that are behind everyone,” Belky said.
The money, which was donated to the town of Ringle to be used in relief efforts, will be critical in helping some families get back on their feet. Beyond the dollars, the cookout will show those affected by the tornado that the local community is there to support them on the long road to recovery.
“The money that we raised is going to help them rebuild their lives, but also it shows the people in our community are behind the families and care about the families,” Belky said.
While adults were hard at work, students from the D.C. Everest, Wausau and Marathon school districts were doing their part to assist those impacted by the tornado.
Each year the districts’ Raise Your Voice clubs work together to organize a charitable Raise Your Voice Run/Walk event, traditionally held at Wausau West. Given the timing of this year’s run/walk, the schools decided to host the event at D.C. Everest’s Stiehm Stadium and donate this year’s funds to the Community Foundation for the victims of the tornado.
Raise Your Voice clubs are student-led and dedicated to increasing mental illness awareness, inspiring advocacy and promoting acceptance.
“Our club focuses on creating a community within our school where we have an open environment for conversations about mental health and to end the stigma around it so people feel more comfortable speaking out about their experiences so no one has to suffer alone,” said AJ Mandli, a DC Everest senior and president of the school’s Raise Your Voice Club.
“We come together with the Wausau schools, Marathon schools and Everest schools to host this run/walk to raise awareness as a community, not as a single district. In the past they’ve raised funds for organizations like the North Central Health Care Crisis and the National Alliance on Mental Illness,” said Erin Jacobson, D.C. Everest mental health navigator.
In the days since the tornado, students like Mandli have seen the direct impact the disaster has had on their peers.
“I play soccer and one of my teammates, her house was completely destroyed by the tornado and a lot of the sports came together and tried to go help out the victims, just cleaning up debris and offering places for them to stay,” Mandli said. “Our student council started a fundraiser where each class tried to raise a thousand dollars for the victims. It’s just really nice seeing the community come together.”
The clubs’ efforts highlight the important (and sometimes overlooked) intersection of disasters and mental health. Beyond the immediate effects and emergent needs, losing one’s home can have long-lasting effects on individuals and families.
“That community coming together is super supportive, which is really what our Raise Your Voice clubs focus on,” Jacobson said. “It’s peer-to-peer, we know students will go to students because they have trusted friends. Even during hard times, there are people always available and there’s always people to support, and I think we’ve seen that in our community … Losing a home, navigating different situations that you’re not prepared to navigate can be very, very stressful. It can take a toll on people during that time and I just encourage them to always seek support. There is a lot of support out there right now.”
In the midst of destruction and hardship, Mandli said it’s helpful and motivating to focus on the positives.
“I hope that people realize that there is a lot of bad in the world, but in that bad there is a lot of good,” Mandli said. “It’s a terrible thing for people to lose their homes and for it to be like this, but my positive outlook is that the community comes together and people work together and that — despite our differences — we can find a common ground.”
Within a few hours of the tornado touching down on April 17, the Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin established a Tornado Emergency Relief Fund to address both urgent and long-term needs. The fund, which gained support rapidly, provides flexible resources to support both immediate relief efforts and ongoing recovery as the community rebuilds.
As of press time, the relief fund has gathered $267,522 in donations from more than 700 individuals and 22 businesses.
“When you’re in the emergent phase of a disaster like this you have to move very quickly,” said Tim Parker, foundation CEO. “We listened to what the needs were and started just taking care of those.”
Already, the Community Foundation has paid for more than 40 dumpster hauls to remove wreckage.
“That is a quick need that’s really important because right away you want to get in to clean up and it takes a while for insurance to kick in to cover that,” Parker said.
Community Foundation funds have also provided fresh food to families, with St. John’s Lutheran Church partnering to provide a distribution center and help deliver meals.
“The day before there was rain in the forecast we drove out and gave away tarps so that people could finish covering things up,” Parker said. “Those are some of the emergent needs that we took care of in the beginning.”
Now the Community Foundation is refocusing their efforts on the rebuilding phase by developing a grant process were families and individuals can apply for grants to support their needs. Both donations and grant applications can be submitted by visiting tornado.cfoncw.org.
“It’s a streamlined process, it’s pretty quick,” Parkers said. “You go onto our website and you can apply for funding. We will be looking at those requests weekly and then making grants immediately after we meet.”
Grant applicants need to provide verification that they were affected by the tornado, a description of the hardship being experienced, the amount of assistance requested and information on any other aid received or pending.
Parker explained that the grant and fundraising processes will be ongoing for “several months or more” as families and homeowners look to move on to a more stable situation.
“Key to this is for us to help keep reminding people that even though the storm is over for those of us who weren’t affected by it, the storm’s not over for them for many months to years,” he said, “Hopefully people will continue to be generous with their time and with their money to be able to help those people because it’s going to be a long time until they feel normal again.”
Together, these varied efforts are sending a unified message of hope and resilience to a community facing a years-long recovery. This diverse response proves that while the storm shattered homes, no one in Ringle will have to rebuild alone.
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