Helping out in Idabel

By Todd Brooks

Dennis McQuinn of Comanche could not sit around and not do anything.

The Tribe Pride Pizza owner was watching the news Friday night when he saw the footage of the destruction of the town of Idabel following severe storms.

“Something hit me to go out there,” McQuinn said. “I called up one of my employees and said, ‘You’re not scheduled to work tomorrow, but your going with me.’ She was like, ‘Sure.’”

The two left out in the early morning hours taking their Wood Fired Pizza food truck trailer with them to go feed first responders and others helping out with the clean-up.

“We were able to connect with the Salvation Army out there,” McQuinn said. “We were able to feed over 100 people and still had so much leftover. We started looking for beacons and work trucks, and things like that and giving them food and drinks.”

He has no regrets of making the long trip.

“I just felt I needed to go out there and help take care of people,” McQuinn said. “Idabel has been hit several times and they are a resilient community, but everybody needs things like this.”

He saw another food truck from DeQueen, Ark. that was there to help and the local First Baptist Church was ministering to people.

They got back to Comanche late Saturday night around midnight.

The trip inspired him to look into beginning a mercy team who will go around and help out people after disasters.

“I want to have everything set up in my shop and be ready to go somewhere,” McQuinn said.