CLENDENIN, WV - The Phoenix Award for Outstanding Contributions to Disaster Recovery by a Volunteer is a National Award that is given to an individual whose efforts and contributions have enabled their community to recover successfully from a disaster.

Susan Jack, as a volunteer, led and coordinated efforts to locate, organize and provide assistance to disaster survivors in the Clendenin area following the severe flooding in June 2016.

However, this story has many twists and turns – Susan was actually on her way out of Clendenin. With all of her belongings in storage, she was renting a small home while her daughter finished out high school summer classes and they were scheduled to move to Ohio for better career opportunities and to be close to family.

However that scheduled move, the one that could have potentially provided a better financial future, never happened.

With no job and very few belongings not destroyed by the storm, Susan and her daughter felt the need to stay in Clendenin and help their community rebuild. Not only did she stay when others were leaving, with help from her parents she purchased a home with potential rental properties attached – an opportunity she called her future saving grace. 

She worked day in and day out helping her neighbors, not thinking about everything she lost and how she was going to live in the future. It was a very traumatic experience – emotionally, mentally, and physically – a time where she paid her rent in Lowes gift card, a time where hugs were big, and a time when the future was bleak. Understanding that Clendenin isn’t healed from this disaster and recovery is very much still under way. Jack encourages West Virginians to continue to donate their time to help this recovering community in the mountain state.