HARVEST, Ala. - It may feel like summer, but spring officially begins this week.  With the new season, the threat of tornadoes also begins to rise.  One local author says now is the time to talk to your children about these devastating storms.

For Madison County resident Stan Reese, being a dad is something he loves and doesn't take lightly.  He says, "You try just to make a difference.  You try to be a good parent every day, but there's no such thing as a perfect parent.  There is such a thing as a parent that tries."

Reese lives with his wife and children off Yarbrough Road in Harvest, a consistently hard-hit tornado target.

He says, "When I picked my oldest son up from school at Harvest and we drove through the neighborhood, I looked at his face as we were stuck there in traffic and he just has this whole look of terror on his face.  What do you say? And I guess that's what started the ball rolling."

Reese was a single dad for over 20 years, and now raises three toddlers.  The experienced dad uses his experiences when writing a weekly parenting column called "Relax Dad.”  He feels talking to kids about tornadoes is an important tip: “In this area you've got to be careful, you've got to know what to say."

So what do you say?  According to Reese, parents should stay calm, go over safety strategies with their children and monitor how much tornado coverage they watch on TV.

Reese explains, “News coverage is so good these days where it shows exactly where the tornado's possibly hitting, and they show the damage.  Do you let your kids watch that? Do you let them worry? Do you let them think that maybe their house is going to be next?"

No matter how you go about talking to your kids about these storms, Reese says it's not something to take lightly, because experiencing a tornado could have a severe impact: “Any traumatic event, whether it happens to them or happens to their neighbor, it's going to live in their memories for a long time.”

Reese also encourages teachers to talk to their students about tornadoes.  He believes classroom discussions could go a long way toward easing fears.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Huntsville High School played archrival Grissom in both boys’ and girls' soccer on Friday night, but the teams carried their competition off the field as well.  The reason: to help a coach who's helped players on both teams tremendously.

Almost 20 years ago, Henry Mpagi moved from Uganda to Huntsville to play college soccer.  Since then, he's shared his passion for the sport with hundreds, coaching at Huntsville High School and most recently, for Huntsville's club soccer program.

Mpagi’s wife Rachel says, "Soccer is his life and he'll tell you it's his life, it's what saved him.  Soccer is everything to him."

For the first time since he moved here, Mpagi returned home.  He discovered his family was living in heartbreaking condition, and his brother with Down Syndrome was on the streets.

His wife explains, “Henry is very not emotional and he called me just in tears.  Just crying and very upset to find them like that, so it was hard."

That's when Huntsville's soccer community stepped in to help.  Huntsville High School’s Soccer Booster Club President Steve Thornton says, “He has given a lot of his adult life to our kids, to our family, so when we heard the story of his family in Uganda and how much they needed our help, it was an easy decision."

Parents felt Friday’s big rivalry match-up created the perfect opportunity for a little friendly fundraising competition.  The money raised will re-build homes for Mpagi's father and brother.

Thornton says, "We've got competition on the field tonight amongst the kids, so we figured we'd let the parents get involved too.  So we got a bucket for Grissom and a bucket for Huntsville."

Since communication with Henry in Uganda has been patchy, he won't find out the full extent of this generosity until he returns to Huntsville next week.  Rachel Mpagi is incredibly grateful: "It's just amazing, I never knew this many people would help."

But this many people did help.  "Probably every kid that's on the field tonight will have been coached by Henry at some point," Thornton says.

Grissom Varsity Goalie John Wilson Booth feels in return, helping Mpagi has also helped open their eyes: "I don't think any of us had seen graphic images of people we knew in Uganda before this, it's just really sad."