Donations for Washington, IL
I am updating the bottom of this post as I learn about new ways to donate to the relief effort. Scroll down for the latest information
If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you know that my mom’s house was leveled by the tornado that hit Washington, IL yesterday.
My mom’s front yard and door
My younger brother Andrew was in the house when it happened. He was sleeping on the couch when he woke up all of a sudden. He looked out the window to see a tree flying through the air towards him and ran to the top of the stairs. To his right, the kitchen walls were sucked away. He dove for the bathroom and curled up in a ball on the floor. When he opened his eyes, there was a blue sky above him and the toilet, tub, and bathroom walls around him were all gone. He was able to walk away and after a short visit to the hospital, he went home with only 8 stitches, quite a few scratches, and lot of bruises. It’s amazing that he’s alive.
Our motto about this tragedy has been “Things are replaceable. People are not.” We’re very lucky that he was relatively unharmed and all that we lost were things. My mom’s entire neighborhood is basically leveled. If you’ve seen the national news coverage, most of it has been filmed in her neighborhood. Update: Over the past two days, we were able to salvage some items from the house. The basement was still in decent shape, however a water main broke during the tornado, so the basement flooded. Luckily some family photos were in plastic containers and did not get damaged.
The street leading up to my mom’s house
I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for the kind words through your texts, tweets, emails, and other messages. And for those of you who have been asking what you can do, there are a few options.
- The Washington Tornado Relief Fund has been set up to help victims. Checks can be mailed to Washington Tornado Relief Fund, 721 West Jackson St, Morton, IL 61550
- United Way has set up a Heart of Illinois Tornado Relief Fund. Information and donation links can be found here.
- You can donate to the Red Cross of central Illinois. Here is a link to their online donation site. To donate by mail, you will need this form. You can specify that you would like your funds to go to the Central Illinois chapter to ensure that the money is used in these areas.
- The Peoria Chiefs are doing an online auction with all the proceeds going to help the tornado recovery efforts. The auction will have autographed baseballs from Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, Greg Maddux and David Freese along with an autographed Ryne Sandberg Hall of Fame program.
- You can purchase a Washington Tornado Relief t-shirt. All proceeds will go to families who have lost their home.
- Heroes Memorial Foundation is accepting online donations for first responders, military (active and veterans) and their families who were affected by the tornado.
Thanks for everyone’s thoughts, good vibes, and support. It’s very much appreciated. You can follow along on twitter with #WashingtonIL or on Instagram
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
I LOVE those spice jars! And the storage for it. I wonder if we could do something like that in our kitchen….
Before I read the sprinkles comment, I was uber eager to find out what spices you were rocking over the sink! Great idea 🙂
Love the idea! What a great use of the space. Thank you for sharing.
your spices were the first thing I noticed when you started showing pics. I love it! I sort mine in alphabetical order, so it’s a little easier for me to find them.
I wanted to alphabetize, but Hubby isn’t the most organized person so I’m not sure how long they would stay organized since he does most of the cooking in the house.
What a great idea! Yesterday when I was looking at the pictures I thought it was tile. (thats the blonde in me) =)
I love it! That is such a neat idea.
I LOVE it! I’m intending to “revamp” my kitchen this spring and add a back splash but wasn’t certain what other changes I might want to add. I’m going to show this to my honey and keep this in mind. Thanks!
Oh, and Happy New Year!
~ingrid
Your renovation posts have me dreaming of updating our kitchen. I absolutely LOVE the backsplash and shelf!
This is a fabulous idea. I love how you color coordinated the different spices across the shelf. It’s very practical and gives your kitchen a very stylish presentation.
Natalie @ gluten a go go
I love that idea! I looks so great with all of the different colors of the spices and sprinkles. And talk about handy, they are so easy to reach!
Love your kitchen posts…the spice & sprinkles jars are what stands out to me..aside from the backsplash. You have such a cutesy kitchen!!!
Oh my! I love love love love it!!! I just sent and IM to my boyfriend that said “I want to do this in our kitchen”…haha.
That is a gorgeous display of spices… I would love to do something like that!
I love that idea! The spices add such good color to your kitchen (and extra space, i would guess!).
Thank you ahead of time for building this in my kitchen when I get my own place.
From all your renovation posts…the spice jars are my favorite. I can’t believe there are 60! I wish I could figure out some place to do that!
I love your spice display! It must be so convenient to have everything right there whenever you need it. AND it looks fabulous in the room!
Spice Rack
I’m amazed on the way you created your own spice rack. It really complements your kitchen design, much more it helps in organizing various spices.