Donations for Washington, IL
I am updating the bottom of this post as I learn about new ways to donate to the relief effort. Scroll down for the latest information
If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you know that my mom’s house was leveled by the tornado that hit Washington, IL yesterday.
My mom’s front yard and door
My younger brother Andrew was in the house when it happened. He was sleeping on the couch when he woke up all of a sudden. He looked out the window to see a tree flying through the air towards him and ran to the top of the stairs. To his right, the kitchen walls were sucked away. He dove for the bathroom and curled up in a ball on the floor. When he opened his eyes, there was a blue sky above him and the toilet, tub, and bathroom walls around him were all gone. He was able to walk away and after a short visit to the hospital, he went home with only 8 stitches, quite a few scratches, and lot of bruises. It’s amazing that he’s alive.
Our motto about this tragedy has been “Things are replaceable. People are not.” We’re very lucky that he was relatively unharmed and all that we lost were things. My mom’s entire neighborhood is basically leveled. If you’ve seen the national news coverage, most of it has been filmed in her neighborhood. Update: Over the past two days, we were able to salvage some items from the house. The basement was still in decent shape, however a water main broke during the tornado, so the basement flooded. Luckily some family photos were in plastic containers and did not get damaged.
The street leading up to my mom’s house
I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for the kind words through your texts, tweets, emails, and other messages. And for those of you who have been asking what you can do, there are a few options.
- The Washington Tornado Relief Fund has been set up to help victims. Checks can be mailed to Washington Tornado Relief Fund, 721 West Jackson St, Morton, IL 61550
- United Way has set up a Heart of Illinois Tornado Relief Fund. Information and donation links can be found here.
- You can donate to the Red Cross of central Illinois. Here is a link to their online donation site. To donate by mail, you will need this form. You can specify that you would like your funds to go to the Central Illinois chapter to ensure that the money is used in these areas.
- The Peoria Chiefs are doing an online auction with all the proceeds going to help the tornado recovery efforts. The auction will have autographed baseballs from Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, Greg Maddux and David Freese along with an autographed Ryne Sandberg Hall of Fame program.
- You can purchase a Washington Tornado Relief t-shirt. All proceeds will go to families who have lost their home.
- Heroes Memorial Foundation is accepting online donations for first responders, military (active and veterans) and their families who were affected by the tornado.
Thanks for everyone’s thoughts, good vibes, and support. It’s very much appreciated. You can follow along on twitter with #WashingtonIL or on Instagram
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
So exciting!!! We are in the middle of a kitchen redo too! Our faucet just went in yesterday! Along with the new dishwasher(we didn’t have one before) is now hooked up!! That may be my favorite new part 🙂 no more washing dishes by hand!!
We’ve been looking around for backsplash. The area behind the sink, stove, and counters is just so bare… we can’t seem to make up our minds about which tiles we like… or if we prefer small bricks. It’s going to be a long process!
And p.s. my boyfriend is obsessed with the faucet you got. We don’t need a new one, but if we did, that’s the one we’d get!
Steph – Oh I can’t imagine not having a dishwasher!
Megan – I love the look of the glass mosiac subway tiling for a backsplash. We had an interesting obstacle in that we have REAL subway tiling on the wall to about 4 feet and the previous owners used liquid nails to attach a laminate backsplash. So we needed something that could be glued back on.
Oh how exciting for the change! I love the redo!
Wicked jealous, I love it. My wife and I talk about our kitchen re-do all the time, even though we don’t have a dime put away for it. But when we do, it will be so fun. The kitchen is by far my favorite room in the house.
Jen: The sink and faucet look beautiful. What I can see of the blacksplash and spice rack, it looks fantastic too. I love, love, love the Vulga Blue granite in our kitchen and I think the glass tile backsplash, although very pricey, really gave the kitchen the splash of color and uniqueness we were looking for! Ok, I really love the chandeliers….they are a real conversation piece and also unique (not for everyone, especially if you are in to simple, clean lines).
Jennifer – Thanks!
Joe – The kitchen is our fav room too. A renovation is a fun/exciting/stressful time. Good luck if you ever get around to it.
Nancy – Thanks – I need to write up posts about the backsplash and spice rack/shelf. We just painted today so it’s all coming together!
It’s so funny – after reading your post on your kitchen and fancy new faucet, I saw the same faucet while at an open house and was showing off all its features to Andrew. Very cool!
I have that exact same faucets and I love it! I also have a deep stainless steel sink. So awesome!
I see that your faucet is on the right. Are you right-handed? I have seen it both ways and need to make a decision. Thanks.
Yes we are both right handed. I actually never thought about putting it on the left.
Yes the green patina looks cool on roofs and awnings. Although we’ll only be at the apartment occasionally and I admit if we arrived after being gone for many months and found the sink had turned into green patina, I might freak out!