K-Town, meet O’ Town. O’Fallon residents deliver bottled water to Texans in need

Led by Whitney Wisnasky-Bettorf and her son, Gregory Wisnasky, over 1,000 gallons of bottled water have been delivered to Killeen, Texas, and nearby Fort Hood.

“It was my son, Greg’s, idea. It takes unity from the community to make this happen,” Wisnasky-Bettorf said. “Bless your heart O’Fallon for helping the smaller communities in Texas.”

The water donations were collected in O’Fallon on Monday and Tuesday and transported to Texas by mother and son Wednesday. Their goal was 850 — soldiers picked up 1,108 gallons.

“We started at 11 a.m. and were done at 2 p.m.,” she said. “The barracks were on their 13th day of no water.”

When Wisnasky-Bettorf saw her friend’s daughter melting snow in a pot on her stove, so she could put water in the toilet for flushing, she went into action.

Wisnasky-Bettorf, a local sparkplug who has organized community drives before, is the managing broker for Red Door Realty Group in O’Fallon. She helped take dog food to Joplin, Missouri, after their devastating 2011 tornado.

Seeing what storm victims had to cope with in Texas got her attention. After snow and ice fell, in bitter cold temperatures, residents lost power Feb. 15. The widespread outages and disrupted water services caused a double whammy. Pipes burst. Many boil orders have now been lifted, and power restored, but some areas were still without clean water.

“They are in high demand for water. February is a slow month in the real estate industry. We just wanted to help. We saw people standing in line for 6-8 hours just to get water,” she said.

The military community got involved as well. The O’Fallon VFW Post 805 was a collection point, and a network of family and friends helped spread word: “Let’s flood Texas with water!”

A church in Glen Carbon also collected water and donations for gas money. And then VFW and American Legion members around Killeen helped too.

After leaving for Texas on Wednesday, they stopped for the evening in the Dallas area, staying with some friends they met through military connections.

They dropped off 100 gallons in Midlothian, Texas, which is near Dallas.

“It’s a larger city, so it was back online sooner,” she said.

It was through another military friend that this project happened.

Brandi Hastings, who posted the photo of her melting snow, is the daughter of Jeff Hastings, a military veteran who lives in O’Fallon. He is carrying on “The Flagman’s Mission,” which was started by Larry Eckhardt of Aledo, Illinois, who died in March 2020.

Hastings honors servicemen and women through flag displays. He provides patriotic and educational information for civic, military and community funerals, parades and patriotic events.

“We provide programs and education about flag etiquette, ceremonies, and proper rendition of honors for military active duty and veterans, police and firefighters, first responders, and other public officials,” he said.

‘Ready to do our part’

Wherever there is a community need, Wisnasky-Bettorf is proud to be of service.

“My family has been in O’Fallon since 1829. We are sixth, seventh, eighth generation O’Fallonites. We’re always ready to do our part,” she said.

Her mother, Babe Papproth, is active in the O’Fallon Historical Society, is part of the cemetery detectives, and in civic and church organizations.

Wisnasky-Bettorf said she knew she could count on O’Fallon — “O’Town Proud!” — to come through.

“They really stepped it up,” she said.

This story was originally published February 28, 2021 at 9:00 AM.