Jim and Melissa lost nearly everything. This California, Ky., family lost five barns and out-buildings.  One of the remaining out-buildings was severely damaged, and serious relief work had to be done to their residence. Their property was littered with countless trees and an incredible amount of debris. Most of their cattle fences were destroyed as well. Their livelihood was smashed when the Mar. 2-3 tornado outbreak struck Eastern Kentucky.

Devastation came from 80 tornadoes, the largest recorded number of tornadoes for the month of March. More than 400 large hail reports and just fewer than 300 reports of damaging wind were recorded by the National Weather Service.  

National support for disaster victims was widespread, and this family was no exception. Jim and Melissa received aid from many charities and people involved in service work. After more than half a year, the farm has a regularly running operation. Trinity High School became associated with this family through Catholic Charities after teacher Michael Budniak spearheaded a spring break service trip last year. This year Budniak led a large group of students and parents to California, Ky., during fall break.

“We’re going to take an army up there!” Budniak told this reporter at an informational meeting for the event. His enthusiasm was evident, and I didn’t hesitate to sign up. After several planning meetings, more than 20 sleepy-eyed freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors arrived onsite in California at 7 a.m. after making the two-hour trek from Louisville.

We were split into two big groups -- loggers and fence builders -- by our bosses for the day, Jim and Melissa. The fence building crew grabbed post-hole diggers and hopped into their truck, heading to the edge of the property to tackle the construction of a new cattle fence.

Along with about 10 others, I was taught the proper use of Jim’s pressurized log splitter. Next to the log splitter was a gargantuan pile of logs about the size of two Mack trucks mashed together. Jim explained that this was some of the trees that were on his property after the storm. We are making firewood for the family.

After a process of splitting wood was established, Jim grabbed four of us bigger loggers, and we hopped into the back of a trailer. Jim then hooked up a tractor, and we were off. We headed down and around his land, breathing in the crisp autumn air and loading more logs into the trailer as we went. His property was beautiful -- 80 acres with a panoramic view for miles of hills and trees.

“This property has always been in my family,” Jim told us on our way back to the log pile. “I grew up here.” His voice trailed off as he was lost in the majesty. There was a twinkle in his eyes, and he smiled.  What a place -- so big, so open, and so peaceful.

I quickly took a liking to Jim; he picked up on my reliability and became a friend. So we worked, splitting the logs, big and small, and loading the trailer, occasionally adding some barbed wire and posts for the fence builders. We paused only to pet the horses or take in the scenery.

Lunch came after the pile was about half done, and it was a major relief.  After Melissa’s delicious lunch, I spoke with one of the regular farm workers, a tall young man by the name of Barrett. I learned that he had worked on Jim and Melissa’s farm for years.  

Another Trinity senior, Michael Sutton, also became acquainted with Barrett.  “Even though we came from two different worlds, we were the same kind of people,” Sutton said. “He was a regular guy.”

After lunch, the three of us moved to the fence-building crew. They were close to the edge of the property, and after about an hour with the extra muscle, the fence was complete. At this point the building crews were finished, so everyone worked on the log pile.

The pile was about an eighth of the original after we left. Before the logs were done, however, Jim pulled the trio of Barrett, Sutton and me to demolish a cinderblock wall that was once part of a barn. To see that about nine feet of a building utterly smashed by a tornado was still solidly standing was amazing. After this task was completed, we said our good-byes and were on our way.

As we were leaving, Budniak was already planning another spring break trip to California, and this reporter is anxious to return. 

“This will be an ongoing partnership with the family,” Budniak said. “We’ll work until they are completely rebuilt.”