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Open World Leadership Center (Washington, DC)
Posted on June 21, 2008

By   Open World Leadership Center

“Tough individualists” partner with local agencies to salvage properties

DES MOINES, IOWA - The catastrophic flooding Iowa has endured since the second week of June is not putting a damper on the long-anticipated arrival in Des Moines of the Open World Leadership Center’s first delegation of Ukrainian leaders this year. The delegation, which consists of public health management professionals, arrived in Des Moines on Saturday, June 21, and was welcomed by host coordinators from ITEBS & Associates, LLC. The Des Moines contingent is one of ten delegations focusing on NGO management, with delegates working in the areas of health services, healthy lifestyles and public health policy, energy, the environment, and women’s issues. Open World national grantee, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation is overseeing the program.

Dennis Dixon, the Open World local host coordinator and a principal at ITEBS & Associates, LLC, described the community’s preparation efforts in advance of the Ukrainian NGO managers’ arrival in a dispatch e-mailed to the Center June 18:

     “Offices in the downtown area, where many government and NGO offices are located, were forced to move to higher ground as a precaution. Many of the key government and NGO officials, with whom we were coordinating the upcoming Ukrainian visit, were unreachable. Countless officials were working 18 hour days, carrying out their official duties, while others went to the levees and filled sand bags.

     The levees in Des Moines held, with one exception, and the downtown area was spared. Over the past few days, those who evacuated have been moving back into their offices, unpacking computers and files and trying to reorganize. The rivers in Des Moines are still well above flood stage, however the weather is cooperating, emergency plans are functioning perfectly and things are slowly getting back to normal.

     Needless to say, these major disruptions have made it difficult to plan a program for our visitors. Local officials, however, have reacted in a manner above and beyond the call of duty... in typical Iowa fashion.... and, although some of them had been without sleep for days and had not been home in a week, they were all extraordinarily cooperative.

      Although it would have been easier to just cancel the Ukrainian visit, we all understand the importance of person to person diplomacy and the value of networking with those in other nations. As a result, we have put together what we believe will be a rewarding experience and an in-depth program. We believe that these visits are important to our state and also to international understanding and cooperation between peoples. Our elected and appointed officials share this belief. Therefore, although there have been disruptions, it has been the goal of all of us to move ahead and prepare the best social, cultural and educational program possible. I believe that we have done that.”

The Center contacted other Iowa hosts to see how their communities have fared during this time of extreme discomfort and devastation. Hugh Ferrer, associate director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, an Open World national grantee, was ready to welcome a group similar in composition to an Open World delegation (young Arabic-language writers), when flood waters forced the university to shut down for a week. Ferrer revealed some fancy footwork, “While the young writers from the Middle East were making their long trips across the ocean, the IWP found some generous institutional partners in Chicago, most notably the Jane Addams Hull House, and within twenty-four hours the entire exchange program was relocated to the campus of the University of Illinois, Chicago.”

Vic Klopfenstein, an Open World local host for Friendship Force International Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, reported that he and club members received a call from an Open World alum in Moscow, as well as calls and e-mails from Friendship Force friends from all over the world asking about the flood.

Klopfenstein said that the disaster did not personally affect him since he lives in Marion, but he and other community members from Marion pitched in to clean up the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids, a favorite stop for Open World delegates. “I was assigned the task of washing the caked mud off the books from their extensive library. The three lower shelves of books were off the shelves and thrown on the floor. These books were being boxed and will be put in a freezer for months, then brought out a box at a time to see if they can be saved.”

William Brock, Iowa Sister States board member and Open World host, is grateful that his town, Urbandale, which is part of the Des Moines Metro Area, came through “pretty much unscathed.” Its hilltop location meant that there was no need to sandbag. Brock expressed his relief, “We were very fortunate the flooding was not worse. All of the government agencies involved: city, state, and federal, did an excellent job of managing the situation. People out here in the Plains are tough individualists, and they band together to deal with whatever catastrophes occur. They are very kind, considerate, and willing to help other people in need.”

Other parts of Iowa were not as fortunate as Urbandale. Terri Bonar, a member of the State Board of Directors of Iowa Sister States, reported to the Center that her parents’ home, south of Oakville, now sits under about 20 feet of water. Her parents are living in a camper, but are grateful they do not have to stay in a shelter. With help from members of a local church group, Bonar’s parents were able to get most of their possessions out to dry land.

“We could never have gotten their things out without help. And of course they have their lives; it can always be worse,” she explained.

Bonar has coordinated eight Open World visits in the past five years, and she told the Center that her parents were always involved. “Their usual role was to take the delegates on the river, as they have a large boat, and it seems the delegates are always excited about being on the Mississippi River,” she said.

Bonar echoed the sentiments of other Open World hosts when she summed up the ordeal, “It’s been said repeatedly that the spirit and the coming together of the people of southeast Iowa is by far the shining light of this disaster, and it’s true.”

[Reprinted with Permission]

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