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Weather Radio project continues Bro. Damian's work
To generations of Northwest Missourians, he was known as the Weather Monk. But
to thousands of children who visited Conception Abbey over the past three decades,
the late Brother Damian Larson was the guy who gave hayrides.
In memory of the jovial monk and meteorologist who was murdered two years ago
by an elderly gunman, two nearby law-enforcement agencies have raised money for a
project that fittingly includes two of Brother Damian’s favorite things
– children and weather.
In memory of Brother Damian Larson, a weather radio was purchased for every school,
licensed daycare, and nursing facility in Nodaway County.
Through the Brother Damian Larson Memorial Weather Radio Project the Nodaway
County Sheriff’s Department and Maryville Public Safety easily raised
$1,200 to equip each school in the county with a programmable radio that
translates warnings and watches from the National Weather Service. In fact, the
project raised nearly twice it’s original goal, enough to extend the offer
of weather radios to all group homes, licensed daycare centers, and nursing homes.
“These radios will allow schools to receive advanced warnings at the same
time they are received by law enforcement and emergency personnel,” Maryville
Public Safety spokeswoman Susan Staashelm said. “This will eliminate delays
in the dissemination of information and allow schools to implement safety procedures
in a timelier manner. We greatly appreciate the support of Conception Abbey, which
gave $300 to the project.”
Staashelm added that the radios can be programmed so that schools will be alerted
only to local weather watches and warnings instead of being bombarded by all alerts.
Maryville Public Safety and the Nodaway County Sheriff’s Department will train
recipients on how to use them.
“Brother Damian would be thrilled by this worthy project,” Dan Madden,
Conception Abbey director of development, said. “It was always his responsibility
to ensure that everyone at the Abbey was up to speed on emergency procedures; he
directed tornado drills and maintained the abbey’s early-warning sirens. And
he loved nothing more than teaching a group of visiting children about the weather
and then taking them on a hayride through the abbey’s farmland.”
In his three decades as a monk, Brother Damian gained a measure of local celebrity
for his folksy and uncannily accurate weather reports, which appeared in local
newspapers and on his Weather Monk Web site. On June 10, 2002, a lone gunman entered
Conception Abbey and killed Brother Damian and Father Philip Schuster, and wounded
two other monks, before turning the gun on himself. Members of the Sheriff Department
and Maryville Public Safety were honored by their peers for their valor in responding
to the shootings.
Melissa Wallace, director of the Sheriff’s Department 911 program, noted that
in a way, this project carries on Brother Damian’s work.
“He was dedicated to helping the people of this area gain a better
understanding of weather, and he taught many children about the beauty and the danger
of weather,” she said. “Our goal is the same as his was – to keep our
children safe.”
We welcome your comments:
communications@conception.edu
www.conceptionabbey.org
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