Stamping Ground is indeed a friend in deed
Written by Kathy Witt
Stamping Ground lives the proverb, “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” In fact, it abides by the second version, too: “A friend in need is a friend in deed.”
When a category EF1 tornado touched down in Stamping Ground on Dec. 6, 2021 bringing with it 95-mile-an-hour winds and hitting Stamping Ground Parker’s Mobile Home Park particularly hard, this tiny town of less than 800 sprang into action.
“We had a fantastic outreach in both financial and in-kind donations,” said Stamping Ground Mayor Keith Murphy. “We received approximately $11,000 in donations and City Hall was filled with in-kind donations of food, clothing and toys.”
Many of the homes in the park were damaged, some beyond repair. Mayor Murphy said the tornado’s destruction left numerous families homeless.
Lending a helping hand to the resident-responders were several organizations, including Scott County’s Emergency Management, Baptist Disaster Relief and the Red Cross.
“This community has always been good about coming forward whenever its neighbors are impacted by storms, fire, etc.,” said Mayor Murphy.
In fact, in 1974 a much larger and more destructive tornado hit Stamping Ground, one that also destroyed all but one of the town’s original historic structures. The remaining house is the Alexander Bradford House, a frame and brick residence built in the early 1800s by one of the original town trustees.
“The 1974 tornado was a much larger incident, requiring many more resources and assets from the state and federal level, having to remain on site for months,” said the mayor. “The December 2021 tornado damage was sorted within days of the storm and was entirely coordinated by county emergency management.”
While the 2021 tornado was smaller, Stamping Ground’s response remained the same: swift and community wide, with residents coming forward to put the old saying into action with their deeds.
“The single parallel was the outpouring from ordinary citizens toward the relief of everyone impacted in the town,” said Mayor Murphy.
Author: Kathryn Witt
Kathryn Witt is an award-winning travel and lifestyle writer, syndicated columnist and author of several books, including Secret Cincinnati, The Secret of the Belles and Atlanta Georgia: A Photographic Portrait. A member of SATW, Authors Guild and the Society of Children’s Books & Illustrators, she lives in northern Kentucky.
