“218 to Texas” Rallying Minnesotans to Help Hurricane Victims

The initiative is also working on plans to help those in southern Florida

PARK RAPIDS, Minn. — A grassroots group in Park Rapids is rallying northern Minnesotans to bring bottled water to Texas.

“You’re sitting online, you’re hitting the sad face button, you’re hitting the like button, the angry button,” said Jenny Larson with the initiative. “I don’t wanna do that. I wanna do something.”

The group 218 to Texas is collecting donations and enlisting volunteers to bring a semi-truckload of water to southern Texas.

They told us a truck driver from the area has already volunteered to make the trip.

One of the helpers said she lived through a hurricane in Texas when she was six years old.

“I remember my mother putting water in the bathtub,” said Jackie Jo Fastenow, an Arkansas woman who frequently visits her cabin near Park Rapids. “The four of us, my mother and my mom and dad, had this little picnic with Vienna sausages.”

“Our goal is pretty simple,” added Denese Jokela, head of the initiative. “Get water from northern Minnesota to southern Texas.”

Of their $3,000 goal, they’ve already raised about $1,500.

To find out how you can help, head to their Facebook page by clicking here.