Elder Michaely Helps Australian Flood Victims

     January 22, 2011                                                        

            Herndon, VA -- Herndon resident Ryan Michaely is currently serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Brisbane, Australia, but instead of going door-to-door proselytizing, he is canvassing neighborhoods helping flood victims recover from what has been described as the worst flood in 50 years in the third largest city of Australia.           

            Elder Michaely, a 2008 graduate of Herndon High School who was dubbed “Mr. Herndon” by the HHS student body, has been in Brisbane for just over a year as an LDS Church missionary. 

            “We are moving heaps of heavy furniture, and taking doors off of homes so that furniture can be moved in and out,” he said. “We’ve moved equipment and furniture up to dry land and anything else that needs to be done.”  One of the worst scenes, Elder Michaely said, was to see the local Woolworths store buried under water.

            One of the families Elder Michaely was able to help was Peter and Sheila Sticklen and their two children, Ben (23) and Rachael (17). The Sticklens said the babbling brook at the back of their house turned into a raging torrent. Peter said he stood mesmerized at the window of his house looking at a wall of water swirling around his house. 

           

            Elder Michaely said he and Elder Jonathon Lester from Temecula, California helped the Sticklens and others who needed “muck and dirt swept out of their homes, and whatever else was required.”

            The two church missionaries live in Emerald Township, one of the hardest hit areas, where eighty percent of the town went under water, meaning Elder Michaely and Elder Lester have plenty of work to do helping citizens recover from the disaster.

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