{"id":51081,"date":"2024-10-16T17:59:32","date_gmt":"2024-10-16T21:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=51081"},"modified":"2024-10-16T17:59:40","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T21:59:40","slug":"lake-bonny-in-deep-waters-given-new-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/10\/16\/lake-bonny-in-deep-waters-given-new-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake Bonny in Deep Waters Given New Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Sarah Schmitt<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continued efforts have been made to reach communities still in distress after the battering of Hurricane Milton.\u00a0 The Salvation Army was the first on the ground to serve hot meals in Polk County, Florida at Bonny\u00a0Lake. Today, canteen crews provide food, comfort, and emotional and spiritual care to residents of this small-town community who are still surrounded by water and have little means of receiving services. Many are without transportation as their vehicles sit in standing water caused by breached waterways flooding streets and walkways. Survivors walked and rode bikes through the heat for the luxury of a hot meal and cold water.<\/p>\n\n\n

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This small community has banded together with neighbors helping neighbors to carry boxes of water, clamshells of hot food, and any provisions they could for those who were unable to leave their homes. Volunteers in this mostly older community stood beside the mobile feeding unit calling shut-ins to see who was in need. Others stood outside the local convenience store to let any passing motorists know that free food was available and to come to eat. Residents of the community have felt forgotten and detached with no ability to get out. Salvation Army volunteers, officers, and canteen crews were received with sincere appreciation at \u201cbeing found.\u201d Survivors were eager to tell their stories and relay that many other people could only be accessed via jon boats. These small boats not only provide the only way to bring supplies to neighbors but in turn offer these neighbors a way through deep waters to get to dry land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major Jesse Chapman gladly accepted an offer to ride along on one of these trips. Jon boats were loaded with food, laundry detergent, and water to take to those who were otherwise inaccessible. One elderly man walked through waist-deep water just to get a hot meal. Major Chapman spent the day praising the faith and resilience of those who captained the Jon boats and listening to their accounts of the storm. As they made their way from house to house, they were consistently asked if the neighbor \u201cover there was offered supplies and food\u201d, each member of the community looking out for one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One woman lost her husband mere weeks prior to Hurricane Milton destroying her home. She exhaustedly told Major Chapman, \u201cI don\u2019t know what to do\u201d but also saying the words \u201cHis grace is sufficient for me\u201d had taken on an all-new meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the day continued the questions continued. \u201cHow are we going to get our children to school?\u201d  Many residents have stayed in their homes because they don\u2019t have anywhere to go, and they are trying to salvage anything they can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A local volunteer hero to many in the community spoke of the hope that the Salvation Army has brought to the community, \u201cGod has brought The Salvation Army here today to be the hands and feet of prayers\u201d to meet the needs in His name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Salvation Army remains committed to providing relief to those affected by Hurricane Milton and offering messages of God\u2019s healing and hope to all those in need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About The Salvation Army<\/strong>
The Salvation Army annually helps more than 30 million Americans overcome poverty, addiction, and economic hardships through a range of social services. By providing food for the hungry, emergency relief for disaster survivors, rehabilitation for those suffering from drug and alcohol abuse, and clothing and shelter for people in need, The Salvation Army is doing the most good at 7,600 centers of operation around the country. In the first-ever listing of \u201cAmerica\u2019s Favorite Charities\u201d by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Salvation Army ranked as the country\u2019s largest privately funded, direct-service nonprofit. For more information, visit\u00a0www.SalvationArmyUSA.org<\/a>. Follow us on Twitter\u00a0@SalvationArmyUS<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0#DoingTheMostGood<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sarah Schmitt\u00a0 Continued efforts have been made to reach communities still in distress after the battering of Hurricane Milton.\u00a0 The Salvation Army was the first on the ground to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"5427","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":51082,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Screenshot-66-6-png.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[5427],"tags":[10097],"class_list":["post-51081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kindness-in-the-community","tag-lake-bonny-in-deep-waters-given-new-hope"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51083,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51081\/revisions\/51083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}