Humanitarian of the Year

Thuecks doesn't stop giving

By Janine Anderson

Tom Thuecks Service extension director for the Wisconsin and Upper Michigan Division of The Salvation Army

Tom Thuecks has made help a way of life.

The service extension director for the Wisconsin and Upper Michigan Division of The Salvation Army has helped in local, national and international disaster areas since 1990. He’s seen the aftermath of floods, tornados, train derailments, the Sept. 11 attacks, hurricanes in Florida and the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka.

“You see people who are out of their houses, whose families have died, who don’t know what to do,” said Stan Kelley, The Salvation Army’s divisional director of development. “It seems like Tom can go right into a place where there’s chaos and figure out a way to make harmony out of that. It does take a special person to go into a horrible situation and make something happen that’s of long-term benefit to people.”

When Thuecks went to Sri Lanka after the December 2004 tsunami, he helped people whose entire towns had been washed away. He worked with the Sri Lankan government to find out what the displaced people really needed and develop a plan that would make it happen.

Debbie Sjogren, The Salvation Army’s Milwaukee County commander, said Thuecks’ skill in recognizing the real needs of an area hit by a disaster helped immensely in Sri Lanka.

“He’s very good at assessing a situation and people,” she said. “He’s also good at understanding the government process. He was able to understand it [in Sri Lanka] and translate it for The Salvation Army.”

The project there was to build 1,000, 400-square-foot homes in areas devastated by the tsunami. Thuecks went to Sri Lanka, learned of the need and brought that back home, where The Salvation Army came up with a plan to get the homes built using as many local resources as possible.

“We wanted to coordinate the local market to purchase things locally and introduce money back into their economy,” Sjogren said.

They relied on local laborers and suppliers, in some cases buying bricks from one place and then giving them to a local merchant before buying them back a second time.

“It’s no accident Tom works at the time of a disaster,” Sjogren said. “He brings a sense of compassion and confidence. It’s ‘I’ve been through this. I know there’s help, and I know how to connect you with the help.’ He never imposes his ideas. He gives options and helps them make the decisions.”

Driving his desire to help is a strong sense of faith.

“Tom is very good about putting his faith into action,” Sjogren said. “He believes with all of his heart that because he loves God so much, his natural action is to serve people. He doesn’t serve for recognition. He serves people because that’s what he thinks God would do.

“The most important thing is faith. It’s not a component of his life; it is his life. Everything he does wellsprings from that faith.”