Dear Kinfolk,

On April 19, 2015, it will be the 20th year since the tragic bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK.  Wife  Jane, suggested that I write about how the Oklahoma State University students and faculty responded in this horrible catastrophe.

For the Oklahoma Restaurant Association, it was opening day  for their trade show in the Myraid Convention Center, less that six blocks away from the Murrah Building.  My dear friend, Bob Clift who was Exec. V.P. of  Oklahoma Restaurant Association (ORA), received a call from the OKC fire department Fire Marshall.  He said he knew we had a trade show in the Myraid Center with cooking equipment set up for culinary demonstrations, large stocks of food on hand for sampling and trained food service professionals in attendance. He ask if it would be possible for us to prepare lunch for the rescue workers.  Bobs answer “of course”, realizing that he must then cancel the trade show the ORA had spent one year planning.  He made the only decision he could and it was the correct one.

 left, David Egan and Bob Clift   .  Top picture is Ned Shadid and a volunteer.  When they asked Ned, the convention chairman, how long its members would continue to provide food for the relief efforts, he replied “as long as they need us”.

Little did the ORA realize that “lunch” would turn into four meals per day for the next 10 days.  In the first 24 hours, more than 25,000 box meals were prepared and delivered to the relief sites.  Thinking back, today it would take weeks of planning to serve the number of meals they served the following 10 days.  Clift said “it really wasn’t rocket science, we figured out that we had tons of food, trained chefs and restaurateurs and equipment on hand”….  one and one half hours after the bombing, the first truck went out with meals.

Clift called me at the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration at Oklahoma State University, he said that ORA did not have enough volunteers to cover the midnight to eight shift.  I had no problem finding students and faculty to answer the call. Among the students were seniors who were also scheduled to work lunch in the schools Taylor Dining Room the next day.  Nonetheless, they decided to sign up for the midnight shift and next day turned up with no rest and served more than 100  people for lunch in Taylor’s.  Faculty volunteers had a little more difficulty in the classroom the next day.  I managed to stay awake, unlike some of my students.

Dr. Bokorney and Crew

Dr. Sue Knight flipping pancakes

It was a very depressing situation for all of us.  The rescue workers would arrive at the Myraid Building after a long search for survivors, often without success.  When we would place a hot meal in front of them  they would just sit there and stare at the table.  A rescuer from  California said he had heard about hospitality in America’s heartland, but until he came to Oklahoma he had “never seen a community open their hearts like this”.

 In my years as a member of the Oklahoma Restaurant Association and a faculty member in the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration, I have never been more proud to have served with them during those troubled times.  Among the students and faculty involved were:

Faculty Involved: Dr. Baker Bokorney, Dr. Sue Knight, Dr. Jerold Leon, Dr. Gail Sammons, Lynda Martin and Jim Anderson.

Students Involved :  Matthias Anderon, Angela Atwood, Marcela Berlioux, Chris Carroll, Raylene Cherry, Bhaggi Chinta, Becky Fox, Darrin Gantz, Melissa Gantz, Marci Gentry, Jimmy Gill, Elizabeth Hammock, John Meyers, Joe Meza, Malisa Morgan, David North, Brian Perry, Shannon Rice, Jennifer Rickey, Tallo Ro, Michell Robinson,, Ed Rodriques, Rebecca Schmidt, Jeremy Souders, Patty Souza, Jane Ann Taubel, Lisa Underwood, Derek Villanueva and Gary Wolf.

Given to the volunteers from the ORA