Wisconsin native Kelly driven to help flood victims

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By Eric Page | Saturday, July 12, 2008 |

Jerry Kelly waits on the 16th green for his turn to putt Wednesday during pro-am day activities at the John Deere Classic in Silvis, IL. (John Schultz/Quad-City Times,). Buy this Photo

SILVIS, Ill. — A minor detour has turned into an all-out mission for Wisconsin native Jerry Kelly.

Last month, on his way home to Madison after caddying at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship near Milwaukee, Kelly was routed off the closed interstate and forced to navigate a maze of country roads through the rising floodwaters in his home state.

He drove south to no avail, then north.

“I ran into three different washed out roads, county highways that were completely under water,” Kelly said Wednesday after finishing his pro-am round at TPC Deere Run. “There were entire farms under water. I could see the house on an island … and people were parking about a mile away and having to basically boat and swim over to their house to get supplies. They couldn’t get their car anywhere near it.”

The image was burned in Kelly’s mind and planted the seed to a burning desire in his heart. He desperately wants to help those “salt of the earth” people, the farmers whose crops and homes were so devastated by the recent floods.

It wasn’t just Wisconsin, though. Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and the rest of the Midwest has been floored by floodwaters, which led the PGA Tour last week to initiate a flood relief fund to give aid to the region.

Cedar Rapids native Zach Johnson serves as the spokesman for the effort, which still has many details to be ironed out. The gist of it is that the Tour, through the BMW Championship in early September, will match 100 percent any pro-am monies donated by players and a smaller percentage of Tour winnings. The amount raised at last week’s AT&T Championship has yet to be released, but, Kelly said, players are stepping up.

“This is like a Midwest Katrina,” Kelly said, referring, of course, to Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged the Gulf Coast in 2005. “This is something we can do to support the people who have supported us over the years.”

Johnson has not been back to Cedar Rapids since the levies failed and left more than 450 city blocks under water. His mother’s downtown office was flooded to the ceiling. His father’s downtown chiropractic office barely escaped.

Like in Wisconsin and other flood-damaged areas in the Midwest, the cleanup in Cedar Rapids is under way. But it’s going to take years, and there is an immediate need for assistance on the ground. Programs like the PGA’s relief fund often take time to dispense aid, and both Kelly and Johnson want to make a more direct impact.

“What stinks about the whole situation is the people that really didn’t have much are the ones that really got affected,” Johnson said. “You can’t even put it into words.

“My dad had an employee who decided to go back to her residence when they were allowed to go back. She walked back there with her husband, and they didn’t even walk inside. They just walked right past. They’re never going to go back. What do you say to that?”

For Kelly, it’s the farmers. Those whose fields were freshly seeded when the flood waters came will need more and more financial assistance in the coming months. Many of them live from crop to crop, emptying their bank accounts for seed in the spring and hoping to turn a profit come harvest time in the fall. For most, the possibility of a profit has been washed away.

The John Deere Foundation announced Wednesday it has made a $1 million donation to the Red Cross to aid flood relief. Kelly acknowledges the sum and appreciates the gesture, but he’s looking for a way to get that money directly to those who need it now.

That is his mission, and as he takes the course today for the John Deere Classic, he knows the better he plays the more he can give.

“I’ve got to do something for the people who have supported me through the years,” he said. “They’re not the richest people, but they are absolutely the salt of the earth. They are the people we can’t do without.”

Eric Page can be contacted at (563) 383-2277 or epage@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.