Business aid in flood fight

When the flooding began in the town of Saratoga more than a week ago, several businesses went out of their way to help.

Local restaurant and catering service, JW Hugus, provided food for the National Guard and Honor Farm inmate crews.

Owner of JW Hugus Trevor Ingraham said he was approached by Saratoga Mayor John Zeiger, Town Engineer Chuck Bartlett and Homeland Security Bravo Team member Rob Cleveland to provide breakfast, boxed lunches and dinners to crew members.

Ingraham said they had stayed open to the public on May 25 and 26. However, in order to keep up with the demand of the increased crews, Ingraham had to close his doors to the public.

"By that time, we were feeding close to 200 (people), so we were doing four shifts on breakfast and four shifts on dinner," Ingraham said.

Ingraham said he did not mind shutting his doors for a few days to help the crews.

"You have to do what you have to do," Ingraham said. "They were working hard."

Another business that helped with the flood efforts by feeding crews was the Saratoga Resort and Spa. Providing meals to University of Wyoming volunteers, National Guard and other volunteers, the resort staff provided burgers and hot dogs to crews.

Food and beverage manager Cheena Deakins said she received a call from the owner Mike Janssen who said he would like his business to help feed the crews.

"He had said the football players were coming in and looking for some lunch," Deakins said. "Basically he said that we will feed them for free, bring them in from all over."

Deakins said the Saratoga Resort and Spa had fed the National Guard earlier that week as well.

Feeding the troops and volunteers was their way of supporting the community, Deakins said. Especially with flooding occurring near their golf course, being able to provide a meal for them was the least they could do.

"I think definitely just having people come in sandbagging, the community coming together (UW volunteers) coming over from just to help out, has been huge for us to help keeping the river at bay so it doesn't flood everything out here."

When Saratoga needed people to fill sandbags, Saratoga Forest Management offered their assistance. Gary Ervin, owner of Saratoga Forest Management, said they paid 10 of their employees to assist with sandbag filling operations instead of working at the mill.

"They just looked like they needed help out there," Ervin said. "When your community needs help, you just do it."