NSSL serves the public beyond the weather
Kevin Kelleher (right), deputy director of NSSL, volunteered his free time to help finish the house of a local man suffering from cancer.
Giving weather talks to children and donating weather radios to local schools are activities you would expect from NSSL/ CIMMS staff, but recently employees found some different and creative ways to reach out to the community.
The NSSL/CIMMS and Storm Prediction Center's Employees Association (NSEA) raises money through annual dues, profits from the "General Store" (snacks, drinks, and other food available for employees), sales of NSSL clothing and severe weather photographs, and through recycling paper and metal products. The money provides a better working environment (e.g. a microwave and refrigerator for use by all employees), and creates opportunities for social interaction between employees such as "Gab at the Grill", Christmas Party, Halloween Party, Chili Cook-off, summer picnic, and a golf tournament. NSEA also used profits to construct a memorial in front of NSSL to honor federal employees killed in the Murrah Building bombing in Oklahoma City, to plant trees around the property, and to donate to charitable organizations as needed.
NSSL/CIMMS employees are also resourceful when it comes
to giving back to the community. Kevin Kelleher used his free
time over the winter to organize volunteers to help a family complete
construction of their home following the father's diagnosis
of brain cancer. The local man, Tom Blevins, had been building
the dream retirement home single-handedly over the past nine
years. Late this winter doctors told Blevins he had only months
to live. More than 35 volunteers came to help the first weekend,
and as the project received media attention, more volunteers
showed up and in eight weeks, more than 300 volunteers worked
over 2500 hours. In early April, Blevins arrived by ambulance
to tour his completed home on a stretcher surrounded by family,
friends, and the volunteers.
