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GREENWOOD, S.C. (AP) — The assembly line started early Wednesday morning.
With the doors propped open at the front of Greenwood Christian School, cases of bottled water lined the entrance hallway, towering over younger students passing by.
Parents dropping off kids left more water, snacks and even money -- anything they could to help.
"It's ironic," said Chris Johns, the head of school at GCS. "There's a flood, and they need water."
The lighthearted comment fell on the ears of students still shaking off the want of sleep. At about 7:20 a.m., the water was loaded into a bus and the rest of the supplies were shoved into parents' cars. A small line of people became a larger one, forming a pivoting chain of efficiency.
By 8 a.m., most of the Greenwood Christian football team had assembled. The group gathered in the school's gym for a short briefing, not on their next opponent or that day's practice, but something bigger: traveling to Columbia to help a fellow private school in need.
"This is not a day for laughing," Johns said. "This is peoples' lives. This might be the first day teachers get back in their rooms. People might be emotional. Prepare for that."
'It won't cost us too much'
Johns' van became an office Wednesday morning. Serving as the lead car in Greenwood Christian's convoy, Johns constantly communicated with his fellow drivers and his guide.
In his fifth year at the school, Johns watched all weekend as the weather affected the state. Greenwood got its share, but places like Columbia were hit hard by flooding. GCS parents asked him Monday what they could do to help.
"I was talking to the people we were supposed to be playing football with (on Friday night), Clarendon Hall, and he said he hadn't been to school yet because 'we are so under water, I probably can't even get to my school until Tuesday to even know,'" Johns said. "So I just thought that I'd call the SCISA (South Carolina Independent School League) asking what we could do."
He received the number of Steve Jordan soon after. Jordan's wife, Liz, is the administrator of Timmerman School in Columbia. The school sat full of water after the storms and needed extra hands.
Johns wanted to take 25-30 people — roughly the size of Greenwood Christian's football team — to help. Another call about noon, this time to Hawks coach Gary Gillion, got the football team out of practice. An hour later, Johns blasted an email to parents asking for donations.
When Johns finally met with the football team during fourth period in the cafeteria, he told them the effort wasn't a day off from school. It wasn't something the students could use for their volunteer hours. It was "giving for the sake of giving."
Johns asked for a raise of hands to see how much help he had. Almost every hand went up.
"I was happy and excited to go," said Preston Koschel, the Hawks' starting center.
It's the kind of reaction Johns hoped for, one he hoped the school helped build.
"If you are going to have Greenwood Christian on the outside of your building, you really ought to show it to people and demonstrate it to your kids and give them an opportunity to exercise what we teach," Johns said. "It's what this is about. It's helping out a fellow school, and I'm pretty sure the Lord will honor it. Whatever we lose of practice time, it won't cost us too much."
With Johns' van turning toward Columbia, his phone pinged again. It was one of the Jordans. The more direct roads were closed. It was going take a little longer to get there. That was no problem for Johns. The Hawks are going to get there, no matter how long it took.
'It just felt like a war zone'
Timmerman School sits at the bottom of a hill. The kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school's long facility runs beside a creek. And during the rain, the ditch beside the turn-in became bogged down and the creek backed up. The water found its way into the school.
Faculty and staff found out the school had been soaked through the news and social media, and parents soon came to check on the building. Water stood in the floors.
Come Wednesday, the water was gone. But the aftermath was everywhere.
Crystal Knight is the book keeper at the school, and she's worked there 19 years. She lives in Pelion, and Wednesday was the first day she could get to the school.
"I was around the first one here, but I think there were two men working on carpet already," Knight said. "But the doors and everything were open, and the alarm was going off. It just felt like a war zone."
Just outside her office sits the library. The school's librarian, Tanya Allen, was sorting through books. Volunteers came in throughout the day to help log inventory. The books on the upper shelves were safe, but the ones sitting floor level -- the books for the kindergarten and first-grade teachers -- were ruined. Allen said the school will practically have to start the collection over.
Knight was constantly reminded of the damage by the smell. The water left behind a mildewed dankness in the building. But the volunteer efforts during the week have made her proud.
"We've all banded together," Knight said. "That's the way we are, this community."
And that strong, family-like bond was present throughout the teachers working in their rooms. Middle school Principal Robert Braciszewski's office is a right turn and a couple of doors down from the library. A gavel sits on his desk that belonged to his grandfather, given to him from the first parent-teacher organization at the school.
His computer, which sat on the floor, housed the yearbook, the school database and access to the school website. He was unsure if the hard drive can be recovered. That has made communication difficult.
"We are small, so a lot of the parents already have our number and a big group text is going around," Braciszewski said. "We just got to keep our fingers crossed and keep praying, and every time we do it, it works."
'We still have our spirit'
Liz Jordan pinballed around the school all day. She was the first person to welcome the Greenwood Christian volunteers with a warm smile and marching orders.
Jordan's been at the school for 42 years, and her mother, June Timmerman, founded the school 62 years ago. It is Jordan's life.
She kept herself, the GCS crew and other volunteers busy. While some of the football players cleaned out storage units behind the school, others hauled safe items that had been washed to an off-campus storage site.
Jordan said the school, which also serves as a pre-K daycare, lost all the the 2-1/2-year-old through 5K books, as well as their toys. Teachers books were also ruined. And the school's recently purchased curriculum was also gone.
But the school retained one thing.
"We still have our spirit," Jordan said. "And it's because kids like this (from Greenwood Christian) that come and pat us on the back, and say 'Keep going. We got your back.'
"I grew up in (this school). And I know, bless her heart, (my mother) was looking down on us saying, 'Push forward. You are going to make it.'"
The school still has many obstacles to overcome. Department of Social Services has already called Jordan, and the Department of Health and Environmental Control will have to come check out the building. A germicidal crew will have to spray down the rooms and that must air out before the paint can be redone.
But before that, the school needed to be cleaned. The Greenwood Christian contingent stayed busy for nearly 4 hours, doing whatever was asked.
By 2:30 p.m., it was time for the Hawks to leave. Jordan said she started yesterday morning with a prayer, and she wanted to send them off with one.
"Heavenly Father, you have sent these young men, and I mean men," Jordan prayed. "Maybe by age they don't consider themselves men, and by the law they may not be 18, but these young men have done more with their hands, and their heart, and their feet than we ever envisioned.
"I know when you shut a door, you open three more. And you certainly showed us that today."
The prayer ended, and hugs went around. But before they left, the Hawks had one more truck to unload. The students didn't want to leave it full. So the team prepped for one more task before they returned home.
The assembly line started moving again.
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Information from: The Index-Journal, http://www.indexjournal.com
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