“It was so shocking, like I can’t even put it into words,” said senior Abby Smearman. “It was nothing like I had ever seen before.”

“The devastation was like an apocalypse,” her dad, Matthew Smearman said. “It was very, very gut-wrenching to see the total devastation in some areas.”

The Smearmans were among the group of AAHS softball team and family members who started the new year with a 700-mile trip to Mayfield to do whatever they could to help those in need.

Eight players, four parents and two coaches made the nearly 11-hour journey to volunteer with Samaritan’s Purse in southwestern Kentucky, where an estimated 76 people were killed and several communities were left devastated.

Volunteers from the Altoona Area High School girls softball team worked long hours to help the community of Mayfield, Ky., after devastating tornadoes touched down in December. Courtesy photo

Jessica Stiffler, AAHS softball head coach, had previously volunteered with Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian humanitarian aid organization, when Hurricane Sandy hit the New Jersey coastline and when wildfires threatened Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

The push to volunteer in Mayfield began when Stiffler asked assistant coach Nicole Rickabaugh if she would want to go with her to help clean up debris left behind by the tornado outbreak. Rickabaugh then suggested Stiffler ask if any of the team’s players would be interested in volunteering.

“I just saw it as a really good team bonding experience,” Stiffler said. “I’m trying to show the girls how to appreciate their community. These experiences really help you grow as a person.”

Those who decided to go on the trip did so because they truly wanted to, as it was not school-affiliated and therefore didn’t offer community service hours, Stiffler said.

For Madison Zimmerer, a senior at AAHS, Stiffler’s passion for volunteering was what made her want to go.

Members of the Altoona Area High School girls softball team, (from left) Madison Zimmerer, Bridget Delozier, Kayla Delozier and Olivia Confer, help with cleanup efforts in Mayfield, Ky. Courtesy photo

“It humbled me, it made me appreciate the things that I have more,” Zimmerer said of her experience in Mayfield.

The group took along community donations of water, non-perishable food items, paper products, work gloves, hand warmers and protective eyewear. Gas money to get them to their location was also donated, which Stiffler described as a huge blessing that made the trip “easy and stress-free.”

Smearman’s and Zimmerer’s families decided to go a step further by preparing gift bags and care packages for those in Mayfield. Some of the items they included were shampoo, socks, lotion and chapstick.

“It was just another way to give back,” Matthew Smearman said.

According to Stiffler, the group was able to fill a large trailer with everything that was gathered.

As large-scale natural disasters are not common in central Pennsylvania, Stiffler and the parents made sure to try to prepare the girls, who ranged from sophomores to seniors, for what they might see.

“I was really scared at first,” Stiffler said. “I was afraid of how they would feel and how it would affect them.”

Once they got to Mayfield, the group took the time to drive around and see exactly what they were up against.

The scenes that met them were shocking.

The group described seeing some streets with houses standing on one side and only rubble on the other, three train cars impaling a 40-foot metal grain silo and large pieces of sheet metal crumpled like paper balls.

According to Maddy’s mother, Sommer Zimmerer, once the initial shock wore off, the girls were ready to get to work.

“Those girls worked their butts off, really, they didn’t hesitate,” Sommer said. “They jumped right in.”

The group stayed in a church while in Mayfield, using cots and air mattresses they brought from home.

The days began at 6:30 a.m. with breakfast and devotional time before they met up with other volunteer groups at 8 a.m. By 8:30, they were on their assigned job site, working to clear the lots of debris and meeting residents who had lived there.

According to Sommer, people would see them in their neon orange Samaritan’s Purse shirts and come up to them, crying and thanking them for their help.

“The people of Mayfield, when they looked at us and thanked us, they would burst into tears because their entire county and town is nothing but rubble,” Stiffler said. “It was a cute little town, comparable to Hollidaysburg, but now residents from that area don’t even know what road they’re on.”

According to Matthew Smearman, the town’s fire chief estimated that just in Mayfield there were still about 220,000 tri-axle dump truck loads of debris of which to dispose.

To help with that enormous undertaking, the group would complete between two and four jobs each day. The girls’ main responsibilities were to help carry and pile debris on the roadside for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pick up and haul away. Those who were 18 were allowed to use power tools and cut apart downed trees and large pieces of metal.

According to Stiffler, it was a lot of manual labor, usually in below freezing temperatures.

“We kept on moving, we were lifting big logs and raking and trying to keep moving,” Stiffler said.

“Toward the end of the day, they got to the point where they could shed a layer or two.”

The work day wrapped up at about 4:30 p.m. and the group would return to the church where they would spend the evening playing games and telling stories before lights out at 10:30 p.m.

“It was a great bonding experience not only with my dad but with my teammates and coaches as well,” Abby said. “We got really close.”

During some down time, the AASD softball team members met up with and played with Mayfield High School’s softball team in their gym, which was untouched by the tornadoes.

“It was really an emotional experience,” Sommer Zimmerer said. “It was almost like they had played together for a long time.”

Since Samaritan’s Purse doesn’t work on Sundays, the group decided to attend a church service where two young girls were being baptized.

The girls’ father had been killed in the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory during the tornado outbreak, and Stiffler said the girls wanted to be baptized so they could join their father when it was their time.

“For a 9-year-old girl to acknowledge that, there was not a dry eye in the place,” Stiffler said.

Despite the trip’s sobering circumstances, many of the group members agreed that it was one of the best and most rewarding experiences of their lives.

“I believe that everybody that’s down there helping will be a changed person because of this,” Matthew Smearman said.

“I would definitely go again in a heartbeat,” Maddy Zimmerer said.

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.