Man’s relief mission endures

JJ Winnemuller took on a mission last fall, delivering campers to the victims of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and Tennessee so they would have somewhere to live.

Now he’s taken that journey a step further, expanding the range of his rescue efforts and establishing a nonprofit organization, Helping Hands Disaster Relief, to help support his work.

Since November, Winnemuller has delivered about 50 campers to people affected by the hurricane. He’s now providing them to people in Iowa who were left homeless after flooding last year and given housing vouchers that are about to run out.

“I didn’t know about it until a couple weeks ago,” he said, noting his friend and collaborator in the disaster relief efforts brought it to his attention.

And he’s collecting firefighting equipment to help Kentucky fire departments that lost everything in recent floods.

The most recent donation he received was a tanker truck donated by the Village of Cedar Grove and Town of Holland that he plans to deliver to the Lost Creek Fire Department in Hazard, Ky.

He recently delivered a trailer full of firefighting equipment donated by the Sheboygan and Southern Ozaukee fire departments to Kentucky, where three departments lost everything, from turnout gear to helmets and trucks.

“We’re still concentrating on the campers but we had this opportunity with fire equipment so we ran with it. It’s a need that’s obviously imperative.”

“I teared up Wednesday (May 16) coming home after the meeting,” Winnemuller said. He had planned to offer to buy the truck, he said, but the communities donated it.

“It really warmed my heart,” he added. “It was a pretty joyous moment.”

Winnemuller, who operates JJ’s Lawn Service in the Town of Port Washington, found his passion for helping those affected by the fierce weather that battered large swaths of the country last year when he saw a Facebook post from Leslie Frank of Green Bay, who was looking for help getting a large camper to Tennessee.

The post struck a chord with Winnemuller, who has since developed a friendship and partnership with Frank, who has been instrumental in helping him formalize his mission and start Helping Hands Disaster Relief.

Frank said she became involved in disaster relief efforts when she and a friend were signed up to go to a women in faith workshop in Tennessee in October, not long after Hurricane Helene decimated large swaths of the area.

She and her friend brought donations to the area when they headed to the workshop, and what they saw inspired them to take action, Frank said.

“It was crazy, the flooding and torrential rain,” she said. “I watched these huge propane tanks floating by, houses floating by.”

After seeing the impact a camper could make, she returned to Wisconsin and told her husband she wanted to buy one and bring it to the affected area. It was an effort that grew and grew, with people donating them and offering them for sale at discounted prices.

“It’s not just here,” Frank said. “It’s people all across the state.”

She said she’s impressed with Winnemuller and his friends, who have made numerous trips primarily to Tennessee and Kentucky to deliver campers and the basics of life.

“JJ is like a machine,” she said, noting they head south to drop off the campers, then immediately head back to Wisconsin. “He has it down to a science now. “

She and Winnemuller coordinate their efforts now, working with relief agencies in the area that can vet families and provide the housing to those in need.

Frank said she learned about the need for campers in Iowa about three weeks ago, when a caseworker in the state contacted her to talk about flooding that occurred in June 2024, wiping out significant areas of the state. Housing vouchers for many of those people expire in May.

She asked Winnemuller how he felt about it, and he replied, “Why not?”

Because it was difficult to find an agency to vet recipients, Frank said, it’s a task she’s taken on.

The decision to create a nonprofit organization for the relief effort will allow people to get tax deductions for their donations, Winnemuller said.

The money will be used to both purchase campers and to finance the trips to deliver them. He noted that his monthly toll bill in Illinois alone has been about $800.

“It’s not cheap,” he said.

But, Winnemuller said, it’s a worthwhile effort that brings rewards that aren’t measured in terms of dollars and cents.

“You can tell in their eyes they’re happy” when they get the campers, Winnemuller said of the people who get the campers.

Frank agreed, saying, “I just can’t imagine having to do what they have to. Sometimes you just need a little help. And to know they’re not going to be homeless because we care ....

“It’s been amazing to see all the people coming out of the woodwork to help others with their skills. We’re doing what we can. It’s really humbling to watch everything fall into place.”

Winnemuller concurred, adding that this is a mission he never expected to be on.

“It’s been kind of crazy the last couple months with how busy it’s gotten,” Winnemuller said. “But it’s rewarding.”