Community Bulletin
Family medicine physician Andrew Colebank, DO, has joined WVU Medicine St. Joseph's Hospital at the Brushy Fork Rural Health Clinic in Buckhannon, where he is now scheduling patients of all ages for appointments beginning in October. Read more →
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BUCKHANNON – The Buckhannon Band of Brothers is aiming to raise $70,000 to $80,000 during its annual calendar fundraiser to help victims of the July flooding and support other charitable work.
Al Tucker, a member of the Band of Brothers, attended the Sept. 10 Upshur County Commission meeting to announce the start of the group’s annual scenic West Virginia calendar sale. The calendars are $15, and the funds will help people who suffered effects from the flooding on July 20 and 21.
“This is our 14th birthday as the Band of Brothers. We started as just four of us meeting at Hardee’s, and now we have 20 active members,” Tucker said. “During the first couple of years, we didn’t have a formal program, but whenever we met on a Friday morning, we would throw in whatever was in our pockets and help some families buy Christmas meals and gifts.”
Eventually, the group decided to sell the calendars Tucker put together with his own photos of various scenic areas of West Virginia so they could help more people.
“We ordered 500 calendars in 2016, and we did not think we would sell all of them, but we did,” Tucker said. “That was the year of the floods down south, so we were sitting there with almost $25,000 to help the flood victims, like we had been doing here for a couple of years for Upshur County families. We had about 70 families. We divvied those up, we called those families and found out what the kids wanted for Christmas, and we bought all that stuff for Christmastime.”
The Band of Brothers helps at-risk kids through the Grand Families program, the Parish House and Project Graduation, and it reaches out to state organizations like the Underprivileged Children’s Foundation, which reaches 26 counties.
“Who knew it would come full circle in July? We get our own devastation, and on that evening and the next day, the first responders were out there just doing amazing, amazing work, and we all love our first responders for what they do,” Tucker said. “The Band of Brothers didn’t have any contingency plans to be involved in anything like that. The next morning, Dr. Almond got up, and his place was flooded, so he was focused on his house. I got up and had a bunch of water in our garage.”
Tucker said his phone rang, and it was a pastor from Fairview, just outside Fairmont. He was looking for the Band of Brothers so he could give them a check, and he wanted to drop off food supplies.
“I met him at Kroger at 9 a.m. He wrote a check for $2,100 to the Band of Brothers for flood relief,” Tucker said. “We eventually figured out he was supposed to take the supplies to the Weston Kroger, but he decided to take them to the Parish House, and Isaac [Casto] was happy to receive them.”
Another member of the Band of Brothers, Kevin Hawkins, checked on families on Brushy Fork and saw how bad the damage was.
“When you’ve lost everything, and you’re standing there the next morning, and your mind is just going crazy, and somebody shows up and gives you $2,000, it really blows your mind, so we decided to do that,” Tucker said. “We didn’t know where we were going to get money to do it, so I put a Facebook post out there, and a slew of people shared that. A couple hundred people shared that, and then, of course, other people shared the shared post. By the end of the week, we had $14,000, and I had people coming over and putting money on my porch.”
As of the meeting, Tucker said they had raised $91,000.
“That’s all God, you know, working in the community, and the generosity of people. People are so generous,” Tucker said. “We’ve had 24 churches that gave us almost a total of $30,000. Only one of those churches was in Upshur County. There were churches from South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia. I’m not sure how they found out about us, but they did.”
Tucker said they have already disbursed $88,300 of that to people affected by the flood.
“Now it’s time for our calendar fundraiser again, and we’d like to be there for the flood victims. We’re trying to provide Christmas meals and presents as we have done in the past,” Tucker said. “We also want to help the statewide organizations we work with, which usually need about $30,000, and after talking to Isaac [Casto], we think we need to raise about $40,000 for the local families, maybe a little north of that.”
The Band of Brothers aims to raise $70,000 to $80,000 during this year’s fundraiser.
“We have made $60,000-plus in the past few years, so we have a shot at this. We’re here to invite our friends and neighbors throughout our community to get the word out to their friends as far and wide as possible that we have these West Virginia scenic calendars,” Tucker said. “Buck Edwards is also coming back Oct. 24 to cook up a chicken dinner, so please support that when the time comes.”
Calendars can be purchased by reaching out to a member of the Band of Brothers. Their contact information can be found below:
- Kevin Hawkins – 304-613-8566
- Bill Nicholson – 304-439-4170
- Tim Rock – 304-642-2555
- John Simons – 681-264-0035
- Al Tucker – 304-704-4292
- Dr. Larry Williams – 304-997-9161
- Pat Brake – 304-677-0214
You can also purchase a Band of Brothers calendar online through the My Buckhannon store.
