By ADAM BELZ
The Gazette
CENTRAL CITY
May 14, 2008 08:01 am
—
A few more boxes of supplies are on their way from Central City to Iraq, but this time the idea is to help farmers.
The cable ties, work gloves, plastic funnels, Bungee cords and farm magazines en route to the city of Hillah are the latest example of what is now a nearly five-year association between this north Linn County farming community and a provincial capital on the Euphrates River about 40 miles south of Baghdad.
It started when Bret Himes, a Marion firefighter and Navy reservist, served near Hillah in the early part of the Iraq war. He and other Navy Seabees set up a forward base at the palace Saddam Hussein built on the nearby ruins of Babylon.
The Seabees worked in schools rebuilding and securing them, getting running water and electricity to them. They saw firsthand that the United Nations sanctions imposed on Iraq in 1990 and not lifted until 2003 had taken a heavy toll on regular people, Himes said.
When he returned to Central City at the end of the summer of 2003, he stayed in contact with his translators. With their help, he has coordinated several shipments of supplies, toys and clothes to Iraqi schools.
“People would be surprised at how many Iraqi veterans are keeping in touch with their translators,” he said.
The most recent shipment consists of supplies from stores like Theisen’s and Orscheln Farm & Home. Students in the Future Farmers of America group at Central City High School helped collect items to send, such as dust masks, duct tape, sandpaper and pliers.
“Everybody just brought in a little bit of stuff, and it just accumulated,” said Aaron Greif, 16, of rural Prairieburg.
About a quarter of the land in Iraq is suitable for farming, according to the Foreign Agricultural Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has teams there working with farmers who grow wheat, barley, olives, dates, mushrooms and other crops.
The Central City students were surprised to find out there is farming in Iraq.
“They all thought it was just sand and desert,” said Rob Pangburn, who teaches agriculture classes and advises the FFA at Central City High.
Himes has tried to organize a sort of cultural exchange between students at Central City and Hillah.
In 2005, a group of sixth graders wrote about their lives in Central City and sent those letters with the school supplies.
In 2006, some high school girls sent CDs, a CD player, batteries, high school yearbooks and explanations of homecoming in one shipment, which included school supplies, clothing for adults, magazines and newspapers.
“It’s not so much the materialistic things. It’s the friendship,” Himes said.
He hopes to keep putting together shipments including more farm supplies this fall and expects to continue working with the Central City FFA.
“Most of the kids are underclassmen, so we’ll probably carry on with it,” he said.
Midamar Corp., an international company based in Cedar Rapids, ships the boxes each time an expensive, complicated part of the task.
“Iraq has always had a very, very rich agricultural sector between the Tigris and the Euphrates,” said Midamar president Bill Aossey said. “This was once the cradle of civilization.”
Aossey said he admires Himes for committing himself to helping Iraqis.
“He didn’t just go over there and come back. ... He came home and said, ‘There’s good people that need help,’” Aossey said. “It’s good for our community to know that somebody like Bret is around doing things for humanity.”
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