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October 6, 2007
On Sunday evening, September 30th, a large
tornado cut a 22 mile path across central Iowa,
damaging or destroying homes and businesses and
disrupting the lives of hundreds of Iowans.
Local KCCI TV meteorologist and chopper pilot
John McLaughlin surveyed the damage from his helicopter and wondered what could be
done to help lift the spirits of these hard
working Iowans.
"That night I woke up at 3:30 am and "Ridin' the
Storm Out" was going through my mind. I fired up
the laptop and dropped KC a note
about helping out with the donation of some
tickets to the REO show on October 5th at the
Prairie Meadows Event Center in Altoona, Iowa so
some storm victims could come party and take
a break from looking for their belongings in the
cornfields."
Kevin responded almost immediately and the ball
was rolling to donate the bands 20 reserved
seats to the already sold out show.
McLaughlin got in contact with the storm victims
and soon the tickets were spoken for.
"I knew that being from the
Midwest, KC would understand how devastating
these storms can be and how long it takes to
pick up the pieces," said McLaughlin, a
lifelong REO fan.
The show was nothing less than awesome as
KC led into the encore of "Ridin the Storm Out"
with some inspirational words for the tornado
survivors. After the show, KC appeared on the
local 10pm news and summed up the evenings
performance by saying "these folks have had
their lives disrupted and they have all kind of
cleanup to do. If we took their minds off things
for a couple of hours, then we've done our job."
It was a job well done, indeed!
Pictured above
- Kevin Cronin and John McLaughlin
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