Sheppard Helps London Tornado Victims in Own Special Way

Former North Laurel High School and UK star Reed Sheppard wasted no time Saturday volunteering to help tornado victims in his hometown. (Joshua Maxey Photo)

Joshua Maxey said the destruction in London from Friday night’s tornado was so “overwhelming” that it was hard to even know where to start when trying to help those in distress.

“Just moving through the rubble and helping them (find)  personal belongings, wallets, purses, vital records, just just things that are very important,” Maxey said on WLAP Sunday Morning Sports Talk Sunday. “Personal belongings such as wedding bands, just so many things that are sentimental. It’s just so overwhelming, you don’t really know where to start.”

Maxey is a former AAU basketball coach and current assistant coach at Bell County High School. He’s known former North Laurel High School and UK standout Reed Sheppard and his family for years. Reed Sheppard, who just finished his rookie season with the Houston Rockets, happened to be in London and reached out to Maxey, who owns a landscaping business, about anything he could do to help those in need Saturday.

“I wish everybody could just get to spend a day with Reed because when we think of these high profile athletes and the money they’ve made and the things they’ve seen and done, you just kind of think of them as though they’re different,” Maxey said on WLAP. “Reed is not like that. He’s not different.”

Maxey told Sheppard he was headed out to see who he might be able to help and Sheppard said to count him in.

“There’s a lot of little kids running around lost. Just don’t know how to even fathom what they just went through. I just thought, ‘If they can just see you (Sheppard) just for a minute, it would put their minds somewhere else.’ Reed said that was fine but that was never his intention. He was in work boots and ready to work with his buddies. There were elderly people crying and when they saw him they would just hug him.

“He was never the basketball player Reed Shepherd. It was just the Reed Sheppard they knew to console and to soothe them. I want to get emotional just thinking about the way that he can handle himself in those situations.”

Maxey posted pictures of Sheppard helping clean debris and helping others even though he knew Sheppard probably would not have wanted him to do that. However, Maxey thought it was important to let others see the hometown star was there to help.

“I never imagined that it would go viral or anything like that. I was just showing some people in London (what Sheppard was doing to help). I figured a few of my buddies would see it,” Maxey said. “If you notice, there was never a picture while Reid was looking at the camera. When we were done, ‘I said if you don’t care,I took some pictures while we were out there and I want to post them on social media.’ I don’t want to gain notoriety. Reed doesn’t need any kind of notoriety.

“If Reed wanted to, he could send $100,000 for relief. But that is not what it was about to him. He wanted to be boots on the ground helping.”

Maxey remembers one elderly lady he thought had to be at least 90 years old who had on a Kentucky shirt who saw Sheppard helping.

“She walks out in her yard and we’re picking up trash and stuff, and she said, ‘Oh my gosh, are you Reed Shepherd?’ She just broke down crying and thanking him.”

If you would like to help those in need, Maxey will “do everything I can” to get things to the right people. He can be reached on X at @jmaxey25 or on Facebook at Joshua Maxey.

“I’ll coordinate anything that we can do to help. If not, I will put you in the direction of the right people to get you where things need to go. We just asked for prayers, and there’s a lot of people hurting,” Maxey said. “We’re no more special than anybody else, but I can tell you this, there’s some dang good people who just lost everything they’ve ever worked for and  just don’t know where to go right now. It starts with prayers, and that’s what you can never get enough of.”

Maxey also pleaded for folks to not forget about those in need in London and also Somerset that was hit hard by the tornado.

“I know often the first few days everybody’s all gung-ho about helping, But two or three weeks later, it kind of loses its steam,” Maxey said. “This is gonna be a long term deal and take a long time to get back. It’s gonna take these people years. We can’t forget about them. We gotta stay steady. There’s a lot of people who need help.

“There’s still people that have no idea what they’re gonna do. We can’t just be strong for the first week and then kind of forget. Everybody has to still live, but we can’t forget about these people.”

That’s a big reason Maxey wanted to share what Sheppard did to help others on Saturday.

“He is the epitome of a kid raised right going above and beyond. Trust me, you’ll never find a better human being than Reed Sheppard,” Maxey said. “The world needs to know there’s still good people that don’t forget where they came from.”