We're Life with Beth and Court, and if you're new here - we're full-time digital nomads traveling the country in our 26' travel trailer.

Recently, our travels took us to a cute little town called Paducah, Kentucky. While we were staying there, we ended up finding this adorable candle-making experience at The Pour Room. There, we met the owner, Terra, and Meghan. We became fast friends and chatted while we made candles.

We ended up learning about a devastating tornado that hit a neighboring town, Mayfield, the previous year killing 57 people. It was the deadliest tornado in U.S. history for the month of December, and the 9th longest tornado on record, covering 165.7 miles with estimated peak winds of 190 mph.

It was reported that the tornado flattened nearly every building downtown within 2-3 minutes.

Meghan's husband, Derrick, is a meteorologist for the National Weather Service office in Paducah, KY. After some investigating, Derrick and his team discovered that among those who tragically died was an Amish family living in a converted manufactured home with no electricity.

Because of their beliefs, Amish families do not keep electronic means of communication in their homes. Other than storm sirens, it is unlikely they had many (if any) warnings about the tornado. That was unacceptable to Derrick; this family could've survived had they had proper warnings about the devastating storms.

Soon after, Derrick joined a task force in the NWS that was working with local officials in Kentucky on weather safety outreach to the Amish. It's called Weather Awareness for a Rural Nation (WARN).

They have been pursuing several different ways of outreach to the Amish, and recently learned that many Amish would allow a weather radio to be in their homes, provided it did not receive other forms of communication (like AM/FM radio).

The task force started a collaboration with a weather radio manufacturer who agreed to manufacture a special weather radio that would be compatible with the Amish way of life - it won't receive AM/FM radio signals, it will only receive weather radio broadcasts. Furthermore, it's solar-powered with a hand crank. The radio will cost around $30.

After crying as Meghan told us this story about what Derrick's been working on, she Face-Timed him so we could thank him personally. We shared how inspiring the work he and his team are doing, and asked how we could help.

And that's how we got here!

For this season of giving, we're asking for you to help us raise $750 by Christmas so we can get 25 weather radios to Amish families in rural Kentucky.

We love that Derrick is an ordinary guy doing extraordinary things - and appreciate you joining in on the effort to help save lives. Let's #BeLikeDerrick.

25 Weather Radios for the Amish Community

Weather Awareness for a Rural Nation (WARN)

Team Members