On December 12, 2025, I departed for the state of Washington as part of the Red Cross’ deployment to help flood victims. I wasn’t able to read C. Sherene Hansen Player’s Guest Opinion in the Dec. 18 paper encouraging Mount Vernonites to help their namesakes until my return just before Christmas.

This native Mount Vernon boy was indeed able to help the residents of Mount Vernon, Wash. Twice a day over a stretch of days, my partner and I picked up food at a kitchen run by the Southern Baptist Convention and delivered it to a variety of shelters housing those displaced by flooding right in Mount Vernon, WA.

Interstate 5 north of Seattle is quite a bit busier than Interstate 80 north of Iowa City. The Washington Mount Vernon is ten times larger than the town of my upbringing. Yet, the people were similarly nice and kind. Maybe it’s a Mount Vernon thing.

Mike Frantz
Storm Lake