July 11, 2016, an EF-2 tornado hit my hometown of Watkins, Minnesota. An EF-2 tornado has winds up to 125 miles per hour. Several homes, buildings and businesses around the two-mile radius the tornado went through were damaged — including the Hilltop Care Center causing 50 residents to be evacuated. Watkins is a pretty small town. I'd say roughly 950 people. So, the tornado had plenty of targets and definitely hit them. If you would like to know more information on the EF-2 tornado and the damaged it caused, click here.

As I live about 10 miles away from Watkins, I luckily missed the tornado, but scrolling through Facebook seeing all of the damaged homes and yards ripped apart absolutely broke my heart. That's where all my friends are. That's where I lived for the important years of my life. That's where my mom and I would go on walks. That's my town.

I had a voice inside me telling me to go and help regardless of how hard it may be, or how hot it is outside. Thinking of how my community's members' lives changed forever in those short three or four hours was enough for me to want to help as much as possible. The day after the storm, I went into town to find somewhere that needed help. I found a house past main street that just spoke to me — I'm not sure why, but it did. I walked up to the woman and said, "Hi ma'am, my name is Madyson Gasper, and I graduated from Eden Valley last year. I have a few hours to spare if you would like some help." She immediately said yes and began asking me to do different tasks throughout the yard. Turns out, it was actually her son-in-law's house, and he was surprised someone came to help their neighbors without being asked. That made me sad thinking about how people don't just go and help anymore. There always has to be a catch. After about an hour or so of cleaning up brush and debris, the number of people I saw drive past and just stare was unbelievable.

We Watkins people know how busy our roads get on a regular basis, and the traffic on our roads was very high compared to the normal day. The streets were already filled with construction trucks and totaled vehicles, and we didn't need anymore that weren't doing any good being there. I understand people want to see the damage, but please refrain from doing so when we are all in the middle of cleaning up devastation. The woman I was helping told me the number of gawkers has been very high all day, not just the small minute I was there.

Driving home from clean up, I recorded some evidence of the tragedy to show my family at home. Here is what I saw, and this was only one street:

The town of Watkins and the people that were affected by this storm are in my circle of obligation. My freshman year of college, I took a Holocaust and Genocide Studies class (which was absolutely amazing by the way). One of our assignments, while learning about the Holocaust part, was creating our Universe of Obligation. The objective was to create circles around circles (yourself being in the middle) and to name people in your life in order of how you would save them. You really don't know how much you love your family and friends until you have to put them in order. It was the scariest and most eye-opening assignment I've ever had.

Maybe it's my calling, or just my personality, but going out of my way to make other people's lives better is what I love to do. I'm not writing this for praise because that's not why I help people. I help people because it's what I would want people to do for me. Have you ever thought about your circle of obligation? If tragedy hit your town, how would you help? Or would you help at all? It's OK if your circle of obligation is huge and you want to help the world, and it's OK if your circle is small and you only feel the need to help those who are close to you. This is why we have people becoming doctors, and people becoming day-care providers. Their obligation circles are much different, but much needed for the world to be a better place.

If you or anyone you know would like to help revive this town, and the community spirits, click here.