“I couldn’t believe it. Being the first person to walk in the building afterwards, with the power being out, water being everywhere, glass everywhere, it looked like a bomb hit the school.”

That’s what Bishop McNamara president Kaelyn Bess, the principal of the Kankakee site that McNamara’s high school and junior high students call home, first thought when she was the first one to arrive at the school last Tuesday night following the severe storm that ravaged chunks of Kankakee County.

While the school was fortunate to be out of the path of the EF-3 tornado that caused severe destruction just a few miles south in Kankakee and Aroma Park, they were not exempt from the hail and severe winds. Several classrooms had windows and skylights broken out, as did the gymnasium that just received a facelift last summer. It now faces tremendous flood damage. Even the school’s buses saw damage, which has put a halt to any transportation, including for sporting events.

That led to high school and junior high classes for the rest of the week being canceled and extracurricular activities being postponed. As teachers and staff showed up Thursday morning to assess the damage to their classrooms and offices, scores of their students also showed up to help begin the process of cleaning up their second home.

“Everyone showed up with the late notice,” senior Cale Hamilton said. “They didn’t really know what they were getting into, but they were here and ready to help. We’re just one big family. ... You just never know that this stuff is going to happen. You just have to be there with open arms, and when they need help, you’re ready to help them.”

Hamilton and his teammates on the boys basketball team had just seen their season – the winningest in program history – come to a heartbreaking end in last Monday’s IHSA Class 2A Pontiac Supersectional. While members of the team planned to spend the rest of the week preparing for their various spring sports, those plans quickly shifted to doing whatever they could.

“It’s the whole opposite of what you could expect,” senior Coen Demack said. “Tuesday [the seniors] didn’t have school (while juniors took the ACT), so I was just getting ready for baseball. Then this happened and flipped the script.”

Working around cleaning crews and construction crews, 50 or so students and their families helped however they could. Some cleared debris to leave paths for crews to board up windows; others helped teachers clean their rooms, provide meals, or whatever else could be done.

“Families are showing up; people who own businesses are bringing them here to clean up and help us open up,” Bess said. “There’s so much hope in the recovery that is amazing. I hope our families and everyone who has been impacted can feel this way. I pray people don’t feel alone in this. It’s overwhelming.”

The school initially planned on e-learning days for the start of the week and scouted potential alternative locations for in-person learning but announced on Friday that the Kankakee site will open on Tuesday.

But opening the school is just the start of it. Several students, alumni, and their families had their homes and cars destroyed or severely damaged, problems that will last much longer than replacing skylights and removing standing water could ever last.

“You see this kind of stuff on the news, and then you’re seeing your classmates have their lives flipped upside down,” Demack said. “It’s hard to see.”

McNamara is collecting uniform donations for students who saw theirs vanish in the storm and started a gift card drive for grocery and gas gift cards for displaced families. They also partnered with BSN Sports and Team Print for a t-shirt fundraiser, with all proceeds going to help families in need throughout the community.

“I’ll let the teachers put their classrooms back when ServPro says go, and then we need to help our families,” Bess said. “There are so many people. We’re collecting uniforms for kids who don’t have their uniforms, just anything we can do for others.”

“This is just a building. It’s the people that make it special, and we’ve got to help them.”

For more information on how to donate and to participate in McNamara’s area-wide t-shirt fundraiser, visit the school’s Facebook page, Bishop McNamara Catholic School.