LCC Disaster Response Holds Annual L.E.R.T. Chainsaw Training and Service Workday at Walcamp

Lutheran Church Charities held the annual Lutheran Early Response Team (L.E.R.T.) chainsaw training and service event workday at Walcamp in Kingston, Illinois, following COVID-19 safety protocol. On Friday evening, July 10, Ed Boerman, LCC Chainsaw Instructor & ISA Certified Arborist, taught the new Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) Basic Operation and Safety Chainsaw class to twenty L.E.R.T. team volunteers, of which eleven were taking this for the first time.
On Saturday, July 11, thirty-eight L.E.R.T. chainsaw volunteers came for the workday. Belvidere, Illinois, a nearby town to Walcamp, experienced strong storms the day before this LCC training. We were able to assess two homes that requested assistance and sent a team of nine L.E.R.T. chainsaw volunteers with a mini-bobcat off-site to cut and clear several downed trees in their yards. The remaining L.E.R.T. chainsaw and equipment operators and draggers stayed at Walcamp and cleared the grounds of downed or damaged trees, limbs, and brush.

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The eleven first time chainsaw operators received individual instruction and guidance from advanced team leaders as they began to practice cutting trees and limbs. There was also an opportunity to instruct those with more experience in rigging techniques for safely felling trees.

The thirty-eight L.E.R.T. chainsaw volunteers came from the following nineteen churches or teams in Illinois and Wisconsin:

Illinois:
Good Shepherd – Elgin
Good Shepherd – Frankfort
Immanuel – Belvidere
Immanuel – DeKalb
Immanuel – Dundee
Immanuel – Freeport
Immanuel – Palatine
Living Word – Orland Park
Lord of Life – LaFox
Messiah – Sterling
Prince of Peace – Palatine
Shepherd of the Hills – McHenry
St. John – Wheaton
St. John – Wilmette
St. Peter – Arlington Heights
St. Peter – Schaumburg
Trinity – Lisle

Wisconsin:
St. John – Racine
St. Paul – Janesville

Walcamp Director, Bill Indelli, expressed his thanks to all present for their willingness to serve to prepare the campgrounds for the ministry they do.

LCC never goes where we are not invited. We NEVER charge those we serve. We put boots on the ground within 24 hours (often fewer) from the time we get the invite.