Amidst tornadoes and tragedy, Millcraft serves Kentucky-based Phoenix Paper heaping plates of heartfelt support and dedicated partnership.
As the National Weather Service declared a state of emergency, issuing tornado warnings throughout Kentucky of EF4 magnitude – the second most intense tornado known to mankind – forecasts showed the horrific twister spiraling toward their home.
The couple fled, heading to the next town up to hunker down inside their business, a small barbershop, in hopes of avoiding the worst of it. But Mother Nature was misread or changed her mind because the beastly tornado ripped through Kentucky right overhead the barbershop where Christina Dixon and her husband ultimately remained safe and unharmed.
During the late evening of Friday, December 10, 2021, a violent, long-tracked tornado moved across Western Kentucky, producing severe to catastrophic damage in numerous towns, including Mayfield, Princeton, Dawson Springs, and Bremen. Crossing through eleven counties during its lifespan, traveling 165.6 miles while at times becoming wrapped in rain, it was the deadliest and longest-tracked tornado in an outbreak that produced numerous strong tornadoes in several states; 57 fatalities were confirmed.*
“Less than one-tenth of a mile down the road from our barbershop is gone. Businesses, homes, all gone,” says Christina Dixon, content and community specialist with Phoenix Paper, a Kentucky-based paper mill and a leading supplier of high-quality printing, writing, and converting papers. “There’s so much sadness, lives were lost, it’s very, very tragic.”
Located in Wickliffe, Phoenix Paper, a Millcraft supply partner, was unaffected by the record-breaking tornado. However, more than 30 of its 330 employees were directly affected and many more had family members who experienced devastation and ruin. “Our employees live in surrounding counties,” Dixon says, “where the most damage occurred. Many of our employees are rebuilding homes and helping their families put their lives back together. It takes time, it’s not overnight.”
Approximately 400 miles north of Phoenix Paper, in Dayton, Ohio, far from the tragedy in Kentucky, Millcraft Account Manager Jody Maus held these families and tornado victims in his heart. He wanted to help – and he hoped his employer of nine years would, too.
Maus had an idea, one he proposed to fellow Millcraft team members: What if Millcraft brought the company’s cooking rig down to Kentucky and served up some support and morale to the people at Phoenix Paper?
Maus was met with nothing but approval as word traveled intentionally throughout Millcraft. “People just started volunteering,” Maus says, “saying they wanted to help, and who could go. Millcraft is all about relationships and community values, giving back and helping where we can.”
The Millcraft “rig”, a promotional item gifted to the company, is a custom-built trailer with a large smoker and charcoal grill that is pulled by a Millcraft racer van. In March 2022, at a time when news crews and national attention have long since moved on but communities still face rebuilding and healing collectively, Millcraft showed up.
Or, as Dixon says, “Millcraft swooped in with their big ole rig, and they were so wonderful to work with and so kind. They put smiles on everyone’s faces.”
“Phoenix Paper is a newer partnership, and this was an opportunity to show them that we care, that we’re truly partners,” Maus says. “They’ve been through a lot, we wanted to help.”
Millcraft employees from across the Midwest, from Cleveland and Dayton to Ft. Wayne and Nashville, and even as far as Detroit, traveled to Kentucky and banded together as one Millcraft volunteer team of 12. Millcraft cooked and served more than 700 meals for Phoenix Paper employees, serving lunch for two days in a row along with packing up meals each day for the Phoenix Paper night crew. Millcraft also boxed up the remaining food for a third day of lunches as a parting gift before heading home.
"For them to come down like they did, it made such an impact on us,” Dixon says. “Their kindness and generosity, it was amazing. They cooked the night before, they were up all night long. I’m sure they must have been tired, but you wouldn’t have known it watching them work together.”
Brats, hamburgers, barbecue pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, potato salad. Dixon says, “We love our BBQ in Western Kentucky, and the food Millcraft served was so good. My family owns a barbecue restaurant, so for me to say this, it was really, really good. We were like ‘What are they doing in the paper business? They need to have a restaurant!’”
Maus said the Millcraft team smoked approximately 28 pork butts and grilled around 400 brats and 150 pounds of hamburger. “We smoked all night, in a hotel parking lot,” Maus says, “served the people, and we were smoking again for the next day. Phoenix Paper thanked us so many times, they kept thanking us, but we were the ones who were thankful to be able to help in some way.”
Millcraft employees who traveled to Kentucky and volunteered to serve Phoenix Paper: Jody Maus, Account Manager Direct Sales Dayton; Evan Baker, Division Manager Direct Sales Dayton; Jarett Patton, Sales Trainee Dayton; Greg Lovensheimer, Chief Operations Manager Corporate; Jack Oldiges, Operations Manager; Julie Sattler, Vice President Regional Manager Detroit; Lauren Simmons, HR Generalist Corporate; Bob Moran, Account Manager Direct Sales Columbus; Chad George, Account Manager Direct Sales Columbus; Tom Barnhorst Division Manager Direct Sales Ft. Wayne & Indianapolis; Mark Wodoslawsky, Account Manager Direct Sales Cleveland; and Greg Jones, Account Manager Direct Sales Louisville & Nashville.
By: Jen W. O’Deay
*compilation of multiple weather reports, National Weather Service