RICHMOND, Ky. (LEX 18) — Lieutenant Derek Thomas was at his brother’s house in Kirksville on Friday night. Everyone had left before that round of tornadoes hit. Good thing for that because the roof of Thomas’s brother’s home was torn off. The home is a total loss.
Thomas, who works with the Madison County Sheriff’s office, saw first-hand the kind of destruction a “small” tornado can cause, so he knew he had to do something for the people of western Kentucky. He enlisted his fellow deputies to help round of supplies. His dog, “Deputy Dallas,” was an obvious choice to be the tornado drive’s marketing coordinator.
“The response has been great since we put it up on Facebook,” said Deputy Michael Stotts.
Stotts was standing by a truck, on loan from God’s Outreach, as deputies filled it with the donations brought in by residents of Madison County.
“It was not necessarily just food, but water, sports drinks. We even got a couple of generators, shovels. Just anything that could help with the relief efforts,” Deputy Stotts said.
Lieutenant Thomas and a couple of other deputies will be taking donations until Friday at 6 p.m. (behind the Madison County Courthouse Annex on 2nd street) before closing the hatch and driving the truck to western Kentucky.
“We do this job, we have this career to help people in any way we can. If that’s not in a law enforcement capacity, then we’ll do it in charitable efforts,” Stotts added.
And that goes for a deputy’s loyal friend too.
