10-Year-Old Iowa Girl Assists Sand Springs Tornado Recovery

She's never set foot in the state, but that hasn't stopped her from helping Oklahomans when they need it the most.

Friday, April 3rd 2015, 6:47 pm

By: Tess Maune

10-Year-Old Iowa Girl Assists Sand Springs Tornado Recovery

She's never set foot in the state, but that hasn't stopped her from helping Oklahomans when they need it the most.

Within hours of last week's deadly Sand Springs EF2 tornado, a young girl from Iowa was on the phone asking what the victims needed.

The 10-year-old told News On why she feels called to help.

At Sand Springs Community Services, basic needs are being provided those in the area.

But after the tornado, the first call that came in was quite a surprise to the executive director. It was from a little girl just a decade old, willing to give whatever she could.

Donations have been pouring into Sand Spring Community Services for the past week.

With each gift comes a smile, a hug and sometimes a tear.

But the face behind the happy reactions, is a 10 year-old girl who lives 600 miles away in Keystone, Iowa.

Raegan Junge has been helping victims of natural disasters for four years now.

“I was trying to imagine if that happened to me, and I didn't really want to imagine that because it almost makes want to cry... like seeing yourself without anything,” Raegan said.

She started by making and selling beaded bracelets to support victims of the Joplin tornado.

Ragean was just 6 then, and since, she's helped with disaster relief in almost every state.

She even gave us a Skype tour of her office.

“Over here is map of everything and everybody I've helped,” she said.

Raegan's going to need a bigger map for Oklahoma, though.

She's sent donations to five different towns for five different disasters, including Mannford after the wildfires and now, Sand Springs.

“She's an angel, angel, just an angel,” Sand Springs Community Services Executive Director Valerie Thomas said.

Raegan mainly has donated toys.

“One new toy can change their whole attitude and it can make them feel so loved and so cared about,” Thomas said.

But Ragean has also sent socks, shoes and even her own personal tablet device.

“In my mind, I think of it as doing a good deed and helping people, but it must be more to other people, I don't know?” she said.

And while she's never been to Oklahoma, she has a horse named after Tulsa. And she loves the people in this state, who she hopes to one day to meet face-to-face.

“I've helped there so many times, it's just I've talked to so many people there, I kind of want to meet them,” she said.

In addition to bracelets, Raegan now makes homemade Chapstick and holds garage sales to raise money to buy relief supplies. She says several more boxes of donations are in the mail to Sand Springs right now.

If you want to donate to Raegan's Tornado Relief Effort, click here

Thomas said they're helping about 50 families a day at the center. The greatest needs right now are food, men's clothing and monetary donations, she said.

For the Sand Springs Community Services website, click here